Sarah vs The Handy Man
by Mindcheater
Summary: Sarah Walker is a single mom who moves to Burbank to get away from her idiot boyfriend who doesn't want to be a father. She needs things fixed in her new home and calls Chuck the handy man.
1. Unpacking

Sarah vs. the Handy Man

I was going to wait for my beta reader to check it but I couldn't wait any longer. All mistakes are mine.

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Sarah Walker is a single mom who moves to Burbank to get away from her idiot boyfriend who doesn't want to be a father. She needs things fixed in her new home and calls Chuck the handy man.

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Chapter 1

Sarah and her sister Carina are caring boxes out of a moving truck.

"I cannot believe Bryce could be this selfish. He actually told you that you and Travis were getting in the way of his success! I wish he was here right now so I can kick his ass!"

"Let's just forget about it, Carina. I just want to forget about him and give Travis a good life."

Sarah and Carina puts the boxes down in the unorganized living room and walk down the hall. They walk into a bedroom that has a baby gate blocking the down way.

Sarah and Carina climb over the gate. Sarah picks up a dirty blonde haired 1 year old who was waddling on the floor.

"Hey Travis."

"Mommy!"

"One of these days Bryce is gunna come looking for another chance, are you going to give it to him?"

"I've given him too many chances. He comes asking for his son, I'll say 'what son?'."

Sarah, carrying Travis, and Carina sit on the plastic covered couch.

"You remember Bryce's reaction when I told him I was pregnant."

"Yeah. Bastard."

Sarah chuckles and shakes her head.

Carina's phone rings. "Hello...Hi babe...I'm at my sisters helping her unpack...Really?!...Hold on. (Turns to Sarah) Um, you don't really need my help, right? I mean, we can finish unpacking tomorrow, right?"

Sarah smiles. "Your boyfriend?"

"Yeah."

"Go on. I got it from here."

"Thanks. (To phone) I'll be right there." Carina hangs up.

"So this John Casey guy, when do you think I'll meet him?"

"He's a busy guy. I'll have to ask him."

"So do you looove him?"

"Uh...oh, look at the time." Carina looks at her watch. "I need to be heading home."

Carina quickly says bye to Sarah and Travis and runs out the door.

"Oh Travis," Sarah tells the young boy who is sitting on her lap. "Auntie Carina's in love."

Travis smiles and climbs up to Sarah's shoulder where he snuggles close to her and falls asleep.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

In the morning, Sarah is woken up by knocking on her front door.

Sarah rolls off her bed, pulls on her robe, and walks to the front door. Not even bothering to look in the mirror to fix her bed hair. She opens the front door.

"Hi, can I help you?" Sarah asks sleepily but then immediately is in full attention when she sees the hot buff guy at her door. She also immediately remembers that she is in a robe and her hair is a mess.

"Yeah, good morning, you called for a handy man?"

The guy looks at Sarah with a dazzling smile that leaves Sarah speechless.

"Miss?"

"Uh, yeah, I need you...I mean a man...A HANDY MAN! A handy man." Sarah blushes.

Sarah lets the man in.

"Names Chuck by the way." He says holding out his hand.

"Sarah Walker." She says taking his hand.

An imaginary spark lights between their hands.

"Is it me or did it just get really hot in here?" Chuck asks, teasingly.

"The Air Conditioning doesn't work." Sarah says dumbly.


	2. The AC

Chapter 2

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Sarah had taken a cold shower and was just finishing dressing Travis after his bath.

Travis was wiggling around in the bed trying to get down.

"Okay, okay, almost finished." Sarah told him.

After getting his shoes on, Sarah puts him on the floor where he immediately crawls out of the room and into his bedroom/playroom. Sarah puts up his baby gate.

"Miss Walker?" Chuck asks.

"Yes?" Sarah immediately turns around, hearing the soft voice behind her.

"Just wanted to let you know that I'm gunna leave to go buy a piece for your A.C. and I'll be back later."

"Okay."

"Mommy! Mommy!" Travis says as he crawls up the gate.

"You have a...your son?"

"Yeah, Travis." Sarah picks up Travis.

"Hi there little man." Chuck says, poking Travis in the side.

Travis giggles.

"So is your husband working?"

Chuck watches Sarah lower her eyes.

"Oh, I'm sorry; I didn't mean to be noisy. I'm just going get that piece."

Chuck starts to walk away.

"Uh, wait!"

Chuck turns around.

"Do I need to give you money or something?"

"Don't worry about it. I know some guys who can get me the piece cheap. Think of it as a 'sorry for being in your business' gift." Chuck says shyly.

He smiles at Sarah again with his dazzling smile that makes Sarah loss all thoughts.

"Okay, thank you."

Chuck leaves the apartment with his toolbox and kicking himself mentally for getting into this poor woman's business.

_'What if her husband's dead? Damnit Chuck, look what you did. This woman's husband probably died and you're waking up old wounds! No more getting into people's business. Just do your job and get out of there.' Chuck thought._

Chuck got in his truck and drove away from the apartment.

Inside, Sarah is making breakfast while Travis sits in his high chair throwing cereal everywhere.

The front door flies open.

"Who was THAT?" Carina says as she walks in the apartment with a huge smile on her face.

"Good morning to you too, sis."

"Hi. So who was that hottie that just walked out of your apartment?!"

"Uh, that would be the handy man, Chuck."

Carina sighs. "Yeah, he can clean my pipes any time."

"Carina, there is a child present and don't you already have a man?"

"Okay, yeah, I do but you don't."

"I don't need a man in my life right now."

"But Travis does." Carina says looking at the little boy still throwing cereal everywhere.

"He's little; he is supposed to be throwing cereal everywhere. He's playing."

"Okay, but when he starts throwing rocks at peoples head don't tell me I didn't warn you."

"Carina, I don't even know the guy. He could just be another Bryce."

"If there was another Bryce in the world I'd kill myself. Now tell me, you like him?"

"Carina,"

"Sure I mean he's cute. What girl wouldn't like him?"

Carina smiles at Sarah mischvoiusly.

---

_'Jeffster Junk Joint'_

"Jeff! Lester!" Chuck yelled as he rang the bell several times.

A bolding man and a skinny Indian man with shoulder long hair walked out from a back room, holding their heads.

"Could you be any louder Charles?" Lester says.

"All you can drink night at Bennigans?" Chuck asks with a side smile.

"Actually Red Lobsters, Bennigans kicked us out." Jeff said.

"Jeffrey! Ow."

Chuck shook his head. "Anyways, I need a piece."

"Well you're in luck. My sister is in town and I'm sure she'd..."

"Not...not that kind of piece. Moron." Chuck said with a disgusted face. Shook his head and gave them a piece of piece. "Look, just find me this so I can leave."

Lester grabbed the paper and tipped it into the computer. "We got it."

Jeff and Lester walked away to go find the piece. Minutes later they returned.

Chuck took out his wallet to pay.

"Hold on there, buddy, why are you paying?" Lester asks.

"Because I want to."

Jeff and Lester looked at each other and back at Chuck. "What's her name?" They both ask.

"Who's name?"

"The customer."

"Chuck Bartowski and if you don't give him the ac piece he's about the leave."

"Oh come on, tell us."

"Okay, her names Sarah Walker."

"Sounds like a cop name." Jeff said.

"Well she's not a cop...at least I don't think she is. I haven't seen her work yet."

Jeff poked Lester in the side with his elbow. "Hear that, he wants to see her work."

Jeff and Lester laugh and then groan in pain from their hangovers. Chuck grabs the ac piece and leaves.

Later that day, Chuck returns with Sarah's ac piece and is finishing installing it.

Sarah and Carina are finishing unpacking the boxes.

Chuck walks out into the kitchen to drink some water.

"Hi there." Carina says, walking up to them.

"Hi."

"I'm Carina, Sarah's sister."

"Chuck. Nice to meet you."

"So Chuck, you got a girlfriend?"

"No, I don't." Chuck says with a curious look on his face.

"Really? Wow. I would have thought a hunk like you would have already been taken."

"Well I haven't been on the whole dating scene for a while. I had a bad break up 5 years ago and I haven't really dated anyone ever since."

"Sorry to hear that."

Chuck finishes the glass of water.

"So listen, my sister's single too. She hasn't been on a date in a while either. I was thinking that maybe you two could..."

"Carina!" Sarah says as she walks into the room. She pulls Carina's arm. "I'm so sorry about this Chuck."

"It's alright."

"See, he does like you."

"It's not alright. I'm sure you're a nice guy and all Chuck but I don't want to date right now. I just went through a bad break up and need sometime alone."

"Yeah, yeah, I understand."

"Thank you."

Sarah drags Carina away.

"Why would you do that?!" Sarah whispers as Chuck goes back to work.

"You know exactly why I did it. You need a man, Sarah, a real man...like Chuck."

Sarah sighs and tries to change the subject. "So when's my future brother-in-law going to come over and help me set up Travis' crib?"

Carina's phone rings. "Speak of the devil. (Answering phone) Hello...okay, I'll be right there." Hangs up.

"Booty call?" Sarah asks, coyly.

"I wish. I need to head down town. We have a meeting with some drug lord. I'll see you later sis. Bye bye Travis."

Carina runs out of the apartment.

Chuck walks into the kitchen with his toolbox.

Sarah is playing with Travis on the floor and trying not to look at Chuck who has sweats stains on his shirt. _'Damn he looks hot!' Sarah thinks._

"So is your sister some sort drug dealer?" Chuck kicks himself again. _'What is your deal? What did we talk about? Do your job and stop being noisy?' He asks himself._

"No...she works for the DEA." Sarah says looking at Chuck with a 'Are you okay?' look.

"Right, right, sorry for asking. I sort of speak without thinking when I'm around a beautiful woman. See, I did it again."

Sarah smiles. "Thanks for the compliment."

"Just being polite."

They look at each other then Chuck clears his throat.

"So I'll be back tomorrow morning to fix some other stuff."

"Okay."

Chuck leaves and Sarah can't help but yell into a pillow like a teenage girl with a crush.


	3. The Crib

Chapter 3-The Crib

Sorry for the delay. It was the last week of school so I was busy with other things. But now that schools over I can write and update stories more frequently.

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"It's great to finally meet you John." Sarah says, shaking Johns hand.

"Yeah, good to meet you too." John says. "Can we leave now?" He whispers to Carina.

"No we can't leave yet. We just got here, plus we got a job for you."

Carina and Sarah led John to Travis' room.

"I'm not babysitting any brat."

"My son is not a brat!" Sarah says picking up Travis.

"John, be quiet! You're not babysitting anyone. You're going to build the crib."

John grunts.

Sarah and Carina leave him in the room.

An hour later, Chuck knocks on Sarah's door while trying to button his shirt.

Carina opens the door. "Running late, handyman?"

"Yeah. Sorry."

"Nothing to apologize for." Carina says, flashing him a smile.

"Um, right. I should get to work."

Chuck walks to the back out the house. He passes Travis' room and sees John trying to set up the crib.

He keeps going on his way.

An hour later, he walks back into the house.

"Finish!" He hears a very proud John yell.

Sarah and Carina walk into the room to find a built crib.

Chuck stands by the doorway.

"Wow, you actually did it." Sarah says.

"What made you think I wouldn't?" John asks.

Sarah shrugs. John grunts.

John picks up Travis. "Alright kid, let's get you in this thing." John slowly lowers Travis into the crib.

Chuck's eyes roam over the floor where he sees two very important parts to the crib.

"Wait!" Chuck says loudly. He walks into the room. "I wouldn't do that if I were you." He says while taking Travis from John and handing him to Sarah.

"Why not?" John asks.

"Because…" Chuck places a toy in the crib.

Everyone watches the crib fall apart.

John looks angrily at Chuck. Sarah and Carina try not to laugh.

Chuck turns to Sarah. "If you would like I could set up the crib properly and safely for you."

Before Sarah can answer, John speaks. "What, you saying that I can't fix it right?"

"Well, from what we all just saw…that's exactly what I'm saying."

John grunts angrily.

"But what do I know, right? I am licensed to fix and build house. I think I can manage a simple crib."

John puffs out his chest and growls at Chuck.

"What's with the growling? Are you some kind of caveman?"

Sarah and Carina giggle. Casey looks at the girls and they stop giggling.

"Johnny, how about you let Chuckles fix the crib?" Carina says, slowly rubbing against John.

"Okay." John whispers.

"Great! Then it's settled, Chuck will fix the crib then Sarah will take him out for dinner as a thank you, and John and I will babysit."

"What?!" CHuck, Sarah, And John say.

"Carina that is not necessary." Sarah and Chuck say.

"I'm not babysitting a brat."

"Stop calling my son a brat!" Sarah tells John.

"Look, you two are going to go on a date and like it. John we are going to watch Travis or you're cut off. Got it?!"

"Yeah."


	4. Big Sisters

Chapter 4-Big sisters

I don't know if I've mentioned this or not but Sarah and Travis live in a town house. That way Chuck has more things to fix.

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Chuck is standing in front of the mirror trying on shirts.

"Chuck, what are you doing?" Ellie asks, stepping into Chuck room.

"Getting ready for my date."

"You have a second date with Amber?!" Ellie says with a big smile.

"No wonder you didn't come home last night. You two were getting to know each other the awesome way! Awesome!" Devon says, also walking into the room.

"Actually, it didn't work out with Amber. After our _date_ she got a ride home with this other guy she met and I slept at the shop."

"Not awesome." Devon says sadly. "Told you she was a bi…"

"Daddy!" A little brunette 9 month old says, crawling into the room.

"Watch your mouth Devon." Ellie warns.

"Sorry babe but she is." Devon says, picking up his daughter.

"Hi Natalie." Chuck says.

Natalie giggles as crazy Uncle Chuck tickles her.

"Chuck, what went wrong? Did you talk about Jill again? Who's this girl you're going on a date with? What's her name? How'd you meet her?" Ellie asks.

Chuck holds up two shirts. "Which one?"

"Blue. Answer my questions."

Chuck tries on the shirt Ellie chose. "First off, yes, I did talk about Jill. Second, you're friend is a…" Chuck remembers there are little ears in the room. "s.l.u.t."

"Told you." Devon says.

"Lastly, the girl I'm going out with name is Sarah Walker. She's a client of mine. Her pushy older sister forced us into going out. Sound familiar?"

"She sounds like a wonder person. I'd actually like to meet her." Ellie says.

"Sarah or her sister?"

"Both. How about on your next date you bring them here."

"How do you know there'll be second date?"

"Seeing as how her sister sounds a little like me…"

"A little? I'd say you two were separated at birth."

Devon laughs.

"No s.e.x for y.o.u tonight." Ellie tells her laughing husband.

Devon stops laughing. "Hey Natty, let's go find you some juice, huh?"

Devon and Natalie leave.

"By the way, if we do have a second date we'll need a second high chair."

"Sarah's sister has a child?"

"Sarah has a child, Travis. He's about Natty's age, real cute, crawls, chubby cheeks, all the requirements of being a cute baby. His father must have been a model."

"Chuck, I don't think you know what you're getting into."

"I didn't even want to get into this. Her nosy older sister forced us into this." Chuck says, looking at Ellie.

"We just want what's best for our younger siblings. We're supposed to be role models."

"Yeah, great role model you are. You got pregnant before you got married. I can still see dads face when you told him."

"Well then you learn from my mistakes and don't knock up a girl before you marry her."

"You don't have to worry about that. There will be no sexual intercourse going on in the near future."

"You got that right." Ellie says as Devon walks pass the room with a disappointed face.

Back at Sarah's place…

"Sarah, take that off!" Carina tells her younger sister.

"What's wrong with this blouse?"

"It's hideous. It looks like Travis threw upon it."

Carina looks through Sarah closet and takes out a red dress.

"Put this on."

Sarah puts on the dress.

"Take it off."

"What? Why?"

"Too sexy for the first date. Where's that one dress I bought you?"

Carina takes out a yellow sun dress. "Perfect. Put it on. I'll look for the sandals and purse."

"But Carina, I don't want to." Sarah says, sitting on her bed and pouting.

"Do what I say or I'm coming on your date with you."

"I don't want to go on a date."

"Sarah you need to get over Bryce, alright? You two have been over for 3 months now. It's time to get out of that bench and get back in the game. Put on the dress. I'm your big sister and want I say goes."

Sarah roughly takes the dress and goes into the bathroom.

"Don't give me that attitude, young lady!"

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Next Up: The dinner date

Sarah meets Morgan in an unexpected and unforgettable way. Morgan reveals some information that shouldn't be said on a first date.


	5. The Dinner Date

Chapter 5-The Dinner Date

Thank you for all the reviews. Your reviews are what keep me going.

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Chuck knocks nervously on Sarah's front door.

"John, could you get that?" He hears Carina yell from inside.

John opens the door a few minutes later. "What?" He says grumpily.

"Great to see you again too." Chuck says sarcastically.

John grunts.

"I'm starting to think those grunts are some kind of mating call. Sorry dude but I'm not into you."

Before John gets a chance to do bodily harm to Chuck he is pulled away by Sarah.

"Bye everyone I'll see you later. Be good Travis." Sarah says before closing the door.

"You have to be one of the bravest men I know." Sarah tells Chuck as they walk to his Ford F-150.

"Why do you say that?"

"John Casey is one scary man and you just taunt him like he doesn't scare you."

"Oh, but he does scare the crap out of me. I just know that you or Carina will come to my rescue just in time before he eats me alive."

Sarah and Chuck laugh.

While riding in the truck…

"So where are we going?" Chuck asks.

"I don't know."

"Well you did invite me on a date."

"Correction, my sister invited you on a date will me."

"More like ordered us on a date."

"She's a very forceful woman."

"I see why John likes her sooo much. So how about the usual dinner and a movie?"

"Sounds good to me."

"I know this great little Chinese restaurant…"

Suddenly some guy on a bike rides in front of the truck. Chuck slams on the brake and puts an arm in front of Sarah so she doesn't go flying forward.

"Are you okay?" Chuck asks.

"I'm fine. Could you…" Sarah gestures to Chuck's hand which is currently cupping her right breast.

Chuck quick removes his hand. "I'm so sorry. I'll go check on bicyclist. Stay in the truck."

'_Great job hero, now she thinks you're a perv.' Chuck tells himself._

"Sir, are you…Morgan?!" Chuck quickly picked up his best friend from under his truck.

"Yeah, pal, thanks for not running me over."

"Sorry about that. I was distracted with other things."

Morgan stood on the tip of his toe and looks at the gorgeous blonde in the passenger seat.

"I would have run over me too." Morgan says.

Chuck pulls out Morgan's broken bike from under the truck. "I'll fix it for you."

"Thanks. Can you just drop me off at the Golden Dragon? I'm dying for some sizzling shrimp."

"We're actually on our way there."

Chuck puts the broken bike in his trunk and Morgan sits in the back seat. Chuck sits in the driver's seat.

"Are you okay?" Sarah asks Morgan.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Morgan Grimes, Chuck's best friend." Morgan says extending his hand.

"Sarah Walker, Chuck's date."

"So do you work with Ellie at the hospital? Has anyone ever told you you look like Vicki Vale?"

Chuck clears his throat.

"Um…no and no. Who's Ellie?"

"Chuck's sister. She's always trying to hook him up with nurses from her hospital."

"You know, in the old days when someone clears their throat it was a sign to the person who was talking to stop talking."

"I thought you were just clearing your throat. You did have that cold last week. Boy you should have seen him, he had snort running down to his chin, his eyes were blood shot red…"

Chuck snuck a look at Sarah who has a disgusted look on her face.

"Would you like you get out here, _pal_?" Chuck asks Morgan.

"Alright I won't say anything about how sick as a dog you were."

"Thanks."

They finally get to the Golden Dragon. They get seated at a table. Sarah excuses herself to use the bath room.

"So buddy, you know I love having you around and all..."

"Hey, I totally get it."

The waiter arrives and so does Sarah.

"Everything okay?" Chuck asks as he holds out Sarah's chair.

"Yep."

The waiter leaves.

"I took the honor of ordering for us already." Morgan says.

Chuck sighs. He thought Morgan was going to leave. He didn't want Sarah to think he was a mean guy if he told Morgan to leave.

"Don't worry Chuck, I ordered the usual."

"Thanks Morgan."

The appetizers came in less than 3 minutes.

"Egg rolls!" Morgan says, taking one in each hand."

"So how did you become a handy man?" Sarah asks Chuck, trying to ignore Morgan trying to stuff two egg rolls into his mouth.

"Well I went to Stanford for electronically and mechanical engineering for four years. After that I did another couple years to become an architect. I just graduated two years ago. I worked with my dad at his company for a couple months but left after some… creative differences."

"Yeah, it's hard working with your parents. In Washington I use to work with my father at his accounting firm, Burton and Company Accounting."

"Burton? As in Jack Burton, owner of a Fortune 500 accountant company?" Chuck and Morgan say a little too loud.

"That would be him."

"But why'd you change your last name?" Morgan asks.

"I kept getting that reaction. I just didn't want to be known as 'Sarah Burton, the millionaire's daughter.' Men only wanted to get with me to get to my dad."

"So what do you do know?" Chuck asks.

"I own my own independent accounting company. I can work from home, set my own hours, not have to answer to anyone, and take care of Travis."

"Who's Travis?" Morgan asks.

"My son."

"Son?" Morgan says looking at Chuck.

"Yep, she has a 1 year old son."

"Just like Natty!"

"Natty is…"

"His niece and goddaughter. She doesn't have a godmother yet. You know, Chuck is great with kids. He volunteers every Saturday at the local elementary school and shows kids how to build bird houses and stuff. He even built them a new playground and gym!"

"Wow, you really have time to do all that stuff and be a handy man?"

"It helps me keep my mind off other things."

"Like what?"

"Like his cheating ex-wife."

"Morgan!"

"I mean, you can't really call her a wife. They were only married for a month."

"Morgan shut up!"

Sarah touches her purse. "I think somebody's calling me."

"It didn't ring." Morgan says.

"It's on vibrate. Excuse me." Sarah stands up and walks to the bathroom.

"See what you did?! You're scaring her away. I thought I was helping. You're always saying you're not ready to date."

"Well I think I am now. Morgan, I really like this girl."

"Even if she has a kid?"

"Especially if she has a kid."

"Why?"

"It just shows a lot about her character. She's a strong woman that doesn't need a man to tell her what to do or how things are done. She can have a career and a family. And Morgan you know that I want a family of my own. I think I can start a family with Sarah but that won't happen if you're here."

"So you want me to leave?"

"Since you got here?"

Morgan looks down at the table. "Oh."

"I'm sorry, Morgan."

"No, it's alright. I understand. I'll just make myself a doggy bag and leave."

"How are you going to get home?"

"I'll walk."

"4 miles?"

"I'll get a taxi."

Morgan was putting some food in a container when Sarah walks over.

"Something wrong?"

"I think it's time I go my separate way and let you two have your date."

"Oh, um, about the date, we're going to have to cut it short. Carina called and she needs me home."

"Okay, no problem."

Chuck lays a fifty on the table and they leave.

They arrive to Sarah's house. Chuck gets out first to open the door for Sarah. Once she is out, Morgan sits in the front seat and starts fiddling with the radio.

Sarah takes out her keys. "Sorry for cutting our date so short. I had a…well; I've never had a date like this before."

"I bet you haven't. There's no other date like a Chuck Bartowski date."

Sarah was putting her key into the socket when the door opens.

"Sarah? Why are you back so soon?" Carina asks.

Chuck looks at Sarah who was probably trying to make up an excuse.

"It's my fault." Chuck says, saving Sarah.

Sarah and Carina look at him.

"I totally forgot I had a breakfast meeting with some realtors and needed to finish up some blue prints. Maybe we can do the movie another time."

"Whenever you're free." Carina says.

"Okay. So I'll see you whenever, Sarah. Bye."

"Bye. Thank you…for everything."

Chuck just waved a hand good-bye as he walks to his car.

"Guess she wasn't the one?" Morgan asks.

"Just like all the rest. Let's get some drinks."

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I had a different ending for this chapter. If you want to read it send me a PM. I wanted to show what a nice guy Chuck still is even though he keeps getting rejected.

REVIEW! REVIEW!

You review for me, I review for you!


	6. The Plumbing

The Plumbing

**After a small break and some technical difficulty the chapter is up.**

**Thank you Engineerd for all the creative ideas and for being a great beta reader and never giving up when hope was low**

**Now is better than never, right. I decided not to change the last chapter and fix things up here. **

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In Chuck's F-150 on their way home from the bar….

"Sorry about what happened." Morgan tells Chuck, slurring his words. "It's just…she looked too perfect for you buddy. I couldn't let you date her."

"Wow, thanks, _pal._" Chuck says sarcastically while he talks very soberly.

"You don't understand, Chuck, I had to save you from her. She would have broken your heart just like your ex. It's my job as your best friend, your life partner, to keep you away from that type of woman."

"It's also your job as a best friend to make sure I'm happy, right? Well I was happy; when I was around her I was happy. You know I'm practically fixing her house for nothing just to be around her.

Morgan, you've done some stupid things but this one tops the charts. Why'd you have to tell her all those things about me? And don't say you were trying to protect me 'cause you never said any of that other stuff to any of the women I've dated. How am I suppose to show my face tomorrow when I have to go work on her house?" Chuck yells at Morgan.

"Well maybe Chuck, you should have grown a pair and told me to leave from the beginning of your stupid date!" Morgan argued back. He was not going to be yelled at.

"You know what? I am going to grow a pair." Chuck stops the truck. "Get out."

"Oh, now you take my advice?"

"Yep, thanks. Now get out."

"You're not serious; this is not how you treat your life partner!"

"Morgan what the hell is a life a partner, never mind just…out!"

"Chuck, you can't do this to me. I don't even know where we are and I'm drunk!"

"Guess I shouldn't have given you all those tequila shots, huh? Better sober up, _pal_."

Morgan gets out of the truck. "You're going to regret this."

"I'll just have to live with the guilt. Like you'll have to live with the guilt of knowing you let my one opportunity to have my life back in order slip away because of you."

"Maybe you should start taking responsibility for your own mistakes and stop blaming me!"

"Go to hell, Morgan."

Chuck drives away and leaves a drunken Morgan all alone.

At Casa Bartowski…

"You're home late." Devon says with a proud smile.

"Not now Devon." Chuck says depressed and taking off his shoes.

"What did you do?" Ellie asks.

"It wasn't me this time, it was Morgan. He told Sarah how I was divorced; he told her all this other unnecessary stuff. To top that off, Sarah made an excuse to leave early."

"Wait, where'd Morgan come from?"

"I almost ran him over on our way to the restaurant. Damn! I should have run him over!"

"I think the same thing everything day. Where is he?"

"I got him drunk and left him on the side of the road somewhere."

"Chuck! As much as dislike Morgan you still can't do that to somebody."

"Don't worry, I just called Anna and kinda told her what happened. She tried to apologize for him and she said 'don't worry' that she'd find him."

"Good. Did **you** have anything to drink?"

"Water, he thought it was Vodka. You know I'd never drive drunk. Not even if I had a sip of beer."

Ellie nods her understanding.

"Can we talk tomorrow? I'm really tired and just want to say good night to my goddaughter and then go to bed."

"Night." Ellie and Devon say.

Chuck goes to Natty's room and looks at the little girl sleeping peacefully in her crib.

He reaches down and touches her little hand.

God how much he wanted a family of his own. Sarah seemed like the perfect mother.

'_Damn Morgan and all his bulllshit.' _Chuck thinks.

At Sarah's house…

Sarah had read Travis a book and put him to bed. After that she put some laundry in the washing machine and took out of the dryer.

"So how'd the date go?" Carina asks, helping Sarah fold clothes.

"I'm tired I'm going to bed." Sarah picks up a basket off the living room floor.

"Oh come on Sarah, it couldn't have been that tiring. What did you guys do?"

"Not what _**you**_ do on the first date. Look Carina, the date…let's just say it wasn't like any other I've had. It was…"

John runs up the stairs from the basement. "Carina, could I see you for a moment?"

Carina walks over to John. "What?" John whispers something in her ear. "What?!"

They both run down the stairs with Sarah following.

"What the hell happen?!" Sarah says looking at the mess in her basement.

Carina and Sarah look at John. "What did you do?!"

"I tried to fix it. Your damn machine wouldn't drain so I fixed it. I tried turning the water off at the valve but it's leaking now"

"This is fixed to you?!" Sarah yells pointing to all the soap and water filling her basement.

John growls at Sarah.

"Don't you growl at me! I am not in the mood, John!"

"At least you have that indoor pool you always wanted." Carina jokes.

"Carina?!"

"Sarah calm down, we'll just call Chuck and ask him to come fix this whole mess." Carina says walking up the stairs and picking up the phone.

"No! You can't do that!"

"Why not?"

Sarah thinks for a minute. "Maybe we should let John fix his own messes. It's late, Chuck's probably sleeping, and we should let him rest."

"As you can see, John breaks things, he doesn't fix em'. I'm calling Chuck."

Back at Chuck's place…

His phone rang in his pocket and he quickly answers it before it wakes up Natty.

"Hello?" He says while walking out of the room. "Okay, I'll be right there."

Chuck rushes to the living room to put his shoes back on.

"Where are you going this late at night?" Ellie asks, curled up next to Devon on the couch.

"Sarah's basement is flooded. One of her pipes might have burst."

Ellie quickly sprung up from the couch. "This is great! This is your chance, Chuck!"

"For?"

"For redeeming yourself. You've got to go over there and lay down some pipe, fix her plumbing. Show her…"

Chuck looks over at Devon and they both laugh.

"What?" Ellie says clueless but suddenly gets it. "You two are disgusting! That's not what I meant and you two know it."

"Oh sure it isn't, sis. I mean, you are always hooking me up with sluts. It sort of sends the wrong message."

"Well Chuck I'm not getting any younger, I'd like a couple of nieces and nephews at some point."

Ellie watches Chuck's face fall.

"Chuck, I'm sorry. I forgot about…"

"It's alright, sis. It's in the past." Chuck takes a deep breath. "I have to go."

Chuck leaves the apartment and tries to focus on getting to Sarah's house instead of thinking of the past.

He was going to fix whatever was broken and be on his way. No need for pleasant conversation. They really didn't even have anything pleasant to talk about anyway.

He gets to Sarah's house 7 minutes later. He gets his tool box out the back of his truck and knocks on her door. She answers.

"Thanks for coming." She says.

"It's my job." He lets himself in and to the basement.

The basement is full of water with bubbles floating over it. He sees John by the back door pouring water outside with a bucket.

"Did you turn off the water or drain it?" Chuck asks him.

"Don't you think if I did there'd be less water?" John says. "I couldn't find the damn faucet or drain in this mess."

Chuck steps into the cold water and disappears into the bubbles.

"Where's Chuck?" Carina asks, with Travis in her arms, but only receives a shrug from Sarah and John.

They hear a squeaky faucet being turned then see Chuck covered in bubbles walk to the foot on the stairs.

Travis cries at seeing the bubble monster.

Chuck wipes bubbles away from his face.

"Here." Sarah says, handing him a dry towel.

Taking the towel Chuck says, "Thanks".

Travis stops crying after he sees that it's only Chuck.

"So who was messing with the piping before I arrived?" Chuck asks.

Both women and Travis point at John. John grunts at them.

"Well looks to me that you did a good job in trying to connect the washing machine drain to the septic line back together."

John grunts proudly.

"Unfortunately you forgot to tighten up the coupling and it blew off."

John suddenly doesn't feel so proud.

Carina whispers to Sarah, "Sounds sort of like your relationships, huh?"

"Shut-up." Sarah whispers back.

"It's alright; it's one of those things people don't really think about doing. I can fix it and get the water out of here; it just might take a while." Chuck says looking at Carina or John, who had walk upstairs, but never looking at Sarah.

"That's great. So I guess we're not needed any more and can leave. I hope this won't take up too much of your time so you can still get some sleep before your meeting." Carina says.

"Uh…no, I'll be okay."

Chuck gets to work in finding the drain to get rid of the water.

Upstairs Carina hands Travis over to Sarah and starts putting on her shoes.

"Carina you can't leave me here alone with him."

"Sarah he'll probably be down there the whole time fixing the basement. What happened on your date that had you like this?"

"I just…I learned some things about him that really changed what I thought of him."

"What, did he kill somebody?"

"No."

"Like he has the guts." John says and gets slap in the back of the head by Carina.

"Did he spend time in prison for some crime?"

"No."

"Then there's nothing to worry about, little sis. He looks like he wouldn't hurt a fly."

John grunts in agreement.

"Give the guy a second chance. Sometimes there's more to learn about people then what you get on a first date."

"Where'd you read that 'Annoying Sisters Weekly'?"

"Yeah, they confused your address with mine."

Sarah slaps Carina's shoulder.

"Just do what I say Sarah. Play nice."

"Maybe."

Carina and John leave.

Sarah puts Travis on the couch and turns on the TV to let him watch while she makes him another bottle.

In the basement, Chuck found the drain being blocked by wet clothes. He took them off and water starts to drain away. The bubbles start to dissolve and he suddenly sees that there is more damage to the valve leading to the washing machine.

'_This is going to be a long night.'_

He takes his iPod shuffle out of his pocket and turns it on.

As Sarah is taking Travis back to his room she sees that Chuck has taken his shirt off only wearing a very tight white undershirt. He was wrapping his shirt around a pipe on the wall that was leaking.

'_Maybe there is more to Chuck I can learn about.' _Sarah says to herself as she watches Chuck's shoulder and back muscles flex from tying the shirt around the pipe.

She put Travis in his crib, which Chuck set up, Sarah remembers.

"Goodnight Travis." Sarah gives him a kiss on the head, puts his night light on, and closes the door a little.

She grabs a blanket from the closet and sits on the couch and watch's TV. She was going to have to stay up until Chuck was finished.

An hour later, Sarah has fallen asleep with the TV still on.

In Travis' room, Travis climbs out of his crib. He slowly opens the door and pokes his head outside to see if his mommy is anywhere in site but she's not so he proceeds over to the open basement door.

Chuck was moving boxes and toys out of the way so he could make room for the washing machine and dryer. He hears somebody walk to the stairs. He looks up and sees it Travis sitting at the top of the stairs looking at him. Chuck smiles up at him, thankful it's not Sarah, and Travis makes his way down.

"Be careful, little buddy." Chuck tells him as he notices how slippery the stairs. Chuck's paternal instincts kick in. "God Chuck, don't let him slip and fall."

Chuck goes and picks up Travis and they sit on the third to last stair together, any further and they'd be swimming.

"Hey, couldn't sleep?" Chuck sits next to him, taking his ear buds out.

Travis nods once.

"Here" Chuck takes off his iPod and wraps it around Travis' small wrist then puts the ear buds into place.

Travis takes the ear buds out of his ears and looks at them, wondering where and how the music is coming out. He puts them back into his ear and takes them back out.

Chuck laughs at the small boy's curiosity.

Someday he thought of doing this with his own son. _'If I ever have kids.'_ He thought to himself. His son wouldn't be able to sleep and he'd be there listening to music with him and keeping him company and scaring the monsters away.

Sarah was woken up by laughter. It sounded like a man's laugh. Then she remembers Chuck is still here. Why was he laughing?

She walks to the basement and sees Chuck with Travis on the stairs. Travis has one ear bud in his ear and Chuck the other.

Travis takes out his ear bud, shows it to Chuck then says something in his baby language.

"I know." Chuck responds, not having a clue what the little boy said.

"Like you know what he just said." Sarah says.

Chuck and Travis turn around and look at her.

"Mommy!" Travis says, holding up his wrist with the iPod on it.

Sarah starts walking down the stairs so Chuck quickly gets up, helping Travis up as they turn facing Sarah.

"What are you doing up this late, Travis?"

Travis talks again and holds up the iPod.

"Don't you think you should give Chuck his iPod back and you should go to bed?"

Travis shakes his head.

Sarah tilts her head a little and crosses her arms. "Travis."

Travis pouts and takes off the iPod and hands it to Chuck.

"Thanks Travis." Chuck says.

Travis holds his arms open to give Chuck a hug. Chuck picks him up and hugs him then hands him over to Sarah without looking at her.

"Thank you." Sarah says and receives a grunt for it.

She puts Travis back in his crib and makes sure he is asleep before walking back down to the basement.

"Can I make you a coffee or tea?" Sarah offers.

"I wouldn't want to bother you." Chuck says, paying more attention to the drain then her.

"It's no bother."

"No thanks."

"You're probably tired, why don't you come up stairs and have a cup of coffee with me?"

Chuck looks at her. She's smiling at him with that angelic smile of hers that makes you do whatever she wants. Chuck looks away.

"You're right, I am tired." Chuck agrees.

"I'll go start up…"

"I'm tired of women like you." Chuck says with slight madness.

"Pardon?"

"Your little rich, typical women with big egos."

Sarah was starting to get mad. "Listen…"

"You listen! I've met your kind before; I've worked for your kind before. Rich stuck up women who only care about themselves. I thought you were different. You seemed nice and caring. Then we went on that stupid date and I saw the real side of you."

"Well you never told me you were divorced."

"You never asked. You never even really talked to me until you were forced to go on a date with me. At first I thought you liked me even though you said you weren't interested and wanted time alone 'cause of your break up. I respected your decision and said I wasn't interested either even though I liked you. I tried to make myself and everyone around me believes I didn't like you."

Sarah moves a step forward to touch Chuck's arm but he moves away.

"I was ecstatic when Carina set us up on a date. I was freaking out too, but I was trying not to show it. Everything was going great until you started to listen to Morgan. I know, it's my fault, I should have told him to leave from the beginning but I…it's been a while since I had been on a date with someone I really liked and didn't want to be alone and say the wrong thing. Well, I didn't ask Morgan to leave but I it doesn't matter now, does it. Nobody wants to date a loser like me." Chuck gets mad and throws his hands up in disgust.

That causes Sarah to jump and step back from Chuck.

Chuck takes a deep breath and calms down. "It's always the same with you women. All you see and hear are the bad things about me. You call it quits without giving anyone a chance to show you who they really are and what makes them special or different, maybe if you gave someone a chance you might find what you're looking for..."

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be. You have a right to reject whoever you want."

Chuck starts putting away his tools.

"So you're not going to let me have my say?" Sarah asks.

Chuck looks at her.

"I'm not an egotistical rich girl. If I was I wouldn't be living in this dump."

"True." Chuck says looking around the wet basement.

"The reason I didn't talk to you was because I was nervous and kind of shy."

"Why?"

"Well you said you weren't interested in me."

"Only 'cause you said you were interested in me."

"I just didn't think you want to date someone like me."

"What do you mean?"

"Okay, for starters, I have a son."

"I love kids, I love my niece like she was my own, that's why I volunteer at the elementary school helping kids build their own little projects. Having a son doesn't change my opinion of someone."

"I just didn't think you want to date a single mother with a lot of baggage."

"I could be your very own baggage handler." Chuck suddenly felt stupid for saying that.

Sarah giggles. "You're funny, Chuck."

"Well I'm a funny guy."

Sarah sits down on the steps. "You know, you assumed things about me after the first date just as I did you. You assumed that just 'cause my father has money that I'm stuck up. I bet you didn't think I was stuck up when you first met me."

Chuck sits next to her. "You're right. I guess we both made fools of ourselves tonight."

"Yep."

"Maybe we could give each other a second chance, you know, a second first date?"

"I'd really like that."

"Me too."

Sarah slides her hand into Chucks. Chuck tightens his hold on Sarah's hand. Sarah looks over at Chuck and smiles. They start to move closer. Sarah moves her other hand to the back of his neck and they move closer to each other.

"I should tell you something before we go any further." Sarah says as she looks into Chuck's eyes.

"What's that?"

"I want more than a fling. I'm looking for a long term commitment. If you're not looking for that just step away and I'll forget this ever happened."

Chuck moves closer to Sarah and kisses her softly.

"You know baggage handlers typically stay with the owner of the baggage until they don't need them anymore." He says smiling.

Sarah smiles back at him and kisses him back. Chuck sweeps Sarah off her feet and carries her back up the steps into the house…

The next morning, Sarah's alarm clock goes off. She reaches over to turn it off and is met by another hand.

"Good morning." Chuck says with a big grin on his face.

She slowly opens her eyes and smiles at Chuck.

"Great morning to you too." She says with an equaling big grin. "I see you enjoyed our little extracurricular activity."

"Little? I wouldn't say it was little."

Sarah slaps Chuck on his bare chest.

The door flies open and they quickly sit up. "I said 'give the guy a second' not 'bed him'!" Carina says with a shocked look on her face.

"Way to fix the plumbing, handy man." Casey says with a smirk.

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"**You know baggage handlers typically stay with the owner of the baggage until they don't need them anymore."-That was all Engineerd. I love that part. I never would have thought of it.**

_**Next up: Anna's House of Pancakes (AHOP)**_

**REVIEW! REVIEW!**


	7. Anna's House Of Pancakes

Anna's House of Pancakes (AHOP)

Thanks for all the great reviews, they are very much appreciated.

Story not beta read so all mistakes are mine.

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At Chuck's place…

"Sup bro." Devon says, giving Natty her breakfast.

"Good morning Devon, Natty."

"Where have you been?!"

The guys and Natty look at Ellie who has come out of her room.

"Well from the big grin on your brothers' face I'd say he took your advice and laid down some pipe." Devon says, giving Chuck an approving nod.

"A gentleman does not kiss and tell." Chuck says.

"Chuck you had sex with a woman you barely know?" Ellie says shocked.

"What did I just say? Look I had to take a shower and leave." Chuck says as he walks to his room.

"Now where are you going?" Ellie follows him.

"I am taking my girlfriend and her son out for breakfast."

"What?!" Ellie runs over to Chuck and hugs him. "You have a girlfriend! I'm so proud of you!"

"Sis, you're suffocating me."

Ellie let's go of Chuck. "I'll let you out for breakfast with her but for dinner you three are coming here tonight."

"I don't know. It seems a little short notice, do you really think you can have everything…never mind. I forgot who I was talking to. Okay sis I'll let Sarah know."

"Maybe her sis can come too."

"Why?" Chuck says curiously as they walk to his room.

"No reason. I just wanted to meet her." Ellie says innocently.

"You two aren't going to plot some evil plan to get us married, are you?"

"Would that be a bad thing?"

Ellie and Chuck stop in front of his bedroom.

"No. But I do think it's a little too early to be thinking about that. We've only been dating for 7 hours."

"Just invite them over for dinner." Ellie says, walking away.

"Fine."

Chuck takes a quick shower, dresses, and heads back to Sarah's.

Thankfully Carina and John have already left so Sarah is waiting for him outside with Travis.

They hop into Sarah's car, since it has Travis' car seat already in it and doesn't gulf down as much gas as Chuck's truck.

"So what did your sister say?" Chuck asks his new girlfriend.

"Well you know after the shock of seeing us half naked in bed together, I told her we were boyfriend/girlfriend. She's very happy for us. How about your sister?"

"Okay, so there was the shock of me not calling her to tell her where I was, then of her being told we had sex…"

"You told her we had sex?!"

"No, of course not. Her husband assumed that we did since I didn't come home last night."

"I just don't feel comfortable knowing that our sisters think we had sex."

They both recall what happen last night…

_Sarah leads Chuck to her room. Chuck closes the door quietly as to not wake up Travis in the next room._

_They start to taking off each others close and kiss in between each kiss._

_Sarah falls on the bed, pulling Chuck down with her._

_Chuck kisses her one last time before going back to his jeans and pulling out his wallet. He reaches into a pocket in the wallet and pulls out a piece of folded paper._

_Sarah watches Chuck unfold the paper. "What is that?"_

"_An I.O.U. for a condom!" Chuck throws the paper. "I'm gunna kill you Morgan!"_

_Sarah lies back on her pillow and sighs. "Maybe we can do it without one."_

"_I don't know…I mean you are very vulnerable to getting pregnant and we've only been dating 5 minutes. I'd like to know the woman that will be baring my children a little more."_

_Sarah throws a pillow at Chuck. Chuck catches._

"_So should I put my close back and leave?" Chuck asks._

"_I guess."_

_Chuck starts to pick up his clothes. Sarah laughs._

"_What?"_

"_Get in this bed right now."_

"_But we can't…"_

"_We can still make out."_

"_Great idea."_

_Chuck jumps under the covers with Sarah._

Back in present time…

Chuck parks the car in front of Anna's House of Pancakes. He walks to the other side of the car and opens the door for Sarah.

Sarah kisses him. "Thank you."

"You're welcome."

Chuck carries Travis into the restaurant, holding the door for Sarah.

The restaurant is steady bas it always is on a Monday morning.

"Chuck!" Katie, the hostess says very cheerfully as Chuck, Sarah, and Travis walk up to her.

"Hey Katie."

"Who are your friends?" She says smiling at Travis.

"My girlfriend Sarah and her son Travis."

"He's so cute!" Katie says playing with Travis.

"Thank you."

A short Asian woman with a belly walks out of the kitchen. "Chuckles!"

"Anna, fancy seeing you here."

"Oh Chuckles." Anna takes two menus from beside Katie. "Let me give you guys seated."

Anna leads them to a booth next to a window in the middle of the restaurant.

"So you must be the gorgeous blonde Sarah and son Travis." Anna says when they are seated and hands them their menus.

"Well I wouldn't say I was gorgeous."

"Chucky would." Anna messes up Chuck's hair.

Chuck hides his blush behind the open menu. "So um…I think we'll have the pancakes."

"I'm glad you gave my Chuckles another chance." Anna pulls Chuck into an embrace with Chuck's face next to Anna's belly.

"Well Chuck and I had a long talk early this morning and we decided to have a second first date."

"That's great. I'm glad you didn't listen to anything my idiot of a husband Morgan said."

"Oh Morgan's your husband?"

"Unfortunately, yes. One drunk night in Vegas and I'm married to a short bearded leprechaun. I'm kidding; he's a great guy when he's not drunk. He slept on the couch last night for what he did."

"I'm sorry for making you go find him in your condition." Chuck says, looking at Anna's belly.

"How far along are you?" Sarah asks.

"4 months but I can still kick Morgan's ass." Anna touches the ear piece in her ear. "We'll talk later, there's some commotion in the kitchen I need to resolve."

Anna leaves and is replaced by Katie who takes their order and leaves.

"So Chuckles?" Sarah says.

Chuck slides closer to Sarah and pulls her close. "It's just a nickname."

"Okay. So did you ever date Anna?"

"Why?"

"She just seemed a little too touchy with you."

"Jealous?" Chuck teases.

"No." Sarah says a little too quickly.

"You have nothing to be worried about. Morgan and I have known Anna since high school and she's always had eyes for Morgan and vice versa. Anna's like another big sister to me."

"Good."

Anna watches from the kitchen window as Chuck and Sarah sit very close together in the booth, talking.

Anna talks into her cell phone. "Ah Ellie they look so happy together."

Chuck teaches Travis how to color on his kid menu instead of eating the crayons.

"Let's just hope she isn't another Jill Robertson 'cause I'll kick her ass back to Slutville…Okay, see you tonight, Ellie." Anna hangs up and walks out with their food.

"So how's the happy family doing?" She asks as she sets the food on the table.

"Everything's great." Sarah answers.

"Don't worry about the bill it's on the house."

"Thanks Anna but no thanks. I'll pay for it."

"Chuck," Anna says very sternly.

"Anna you know how I feel about this."

"This is my restaurant, I am the boss."

"Yes but he is your boss. When it's on the house it means that he's paying for it."

"Fine, then I'll pay for it then."

"Don't do that."

"Charles Irving Bartowski I am trying to be nice right now! I am pregnant and very hormonal, not make me go crazy on you!"

"Just do what she says Chuck." Sarah says, resting her hand on Chucks.

"Okay." Chuck says.

"Great!" Anna says. "Thank you Sarah."

"I know what you're going through. I killed my pet fish with a knife when I was pregnant."

Sarah and Anna laugh. Chuck laugh nervously as he removes all silverware away from Sarah and Anna.

Minutes later…

"So who exactly were you two talking about? Who's Anna's boss?"

Chuck sighs nervously. "My father. He owns the House of Pancakes all over California. Anna owns part of this restaurant and got to name the restaurant after herself."

"SO your dad owns breakfast restaurants."

"He also owns SBGADGETS."

"Your dad's Stephen Bartowski?"

"Yep."

"Your dad is the leading electronic and game software designer and developer in the world."

"I know."

"Your dad is richer then my dad."

"Yep, my dad is pretty rich."

"So why are you fixing houses and living with your sister?"

"Like I said my dad's rich, not me. Can we talk about something else and not ruin the day?"

"Okay. I'm sorry, I…"

"You didn't know. It's a touchy subject for me. My father and I don't get along; we have different opinions about things, that's all."

"Okay, I won't ask you anything about it anymore."

"Thank you. So how do you like your pancakes, Travis?"

They look over at the small boy who has a piece of pancake stuck to his face.

"I'll go get him cleaned up." Chuck says, picking up the little boy from the high chair.

Sarah pulls Chuck down to her level and kisses him on the lips softly. "Thank You."

"Mommy! Mommy! Me!" Travis says wanting a kiss too.

"After you get cleaned, okay?"

Travis nods and slaps Chuck on the shoulder to hurry up and go.

"Be right back." Chuck says as they leave.

After Chuck and Travis are in the bathroom Anna walks out of the kitchen and sits with Sarah.

"Hi." Sarah says.

"Hey. I just wanted to tell you something while Chuck was away."

"Okay, what is it?"

"Chuck's a really good guy."

"He is." Sarah agrees.

"He's a nice guy even when people aren't nice to him. If there's a problem he makes it so the other person gets what they want, leaving him with nothing. Chuck's has his heart broken too many times that I've stop counting."

"Well I can guarantee you that I won't break his heart. I've been heartbroken as well and don't like the feeling. I never want to make Chuck feel that way."

A smile grew on Anna's face. "I know you'll treat my Chucky well."

Chuck and Travis walk out of the bathroom and see the women hugging.

"Hey, what's going on?" He asks.

"Oh nothing, I'm not going to kill her." Anna stands up and kisses Chuck on the cheek.

"Um…thank you?" He says, wondering what they were talking about while he was one.

Chuck, Sarah, Travis leave the restaurant. Anna waves bye as they get in the car.

"So what did you two talk about while I was gone?"

Sarah just smiles at Chuck and lays a reassuring hand over his.

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**Next Up: Dinner with the family**

**Don't forget to view whether you liked it or hated it or if you have any suggestions.**


	8. Dinner with the Bartowski's

Dinner with the family

Chuck walks into the kitchen after taking a shower.

"Mmm," He says, smelling Ellie's cooking. "something smells delicious."

"Mom's secret lasagna recipe." Ellie says cutting cucumber rounds.

"And you can't make mama's secret recipe without mama."

Chuck turns around to see his mother standing behind him. He quickly embraces her.

"Mom! What are you doing here?"

"Great to see you too, honey."

"I mean, yeah, it's great to see you, but I didn't expect you this evening!" Chuck looks at his mother with a slightly confused yet happy smile as he opens his arms for a hug.

"Ellie called me this morning to tell me that you met a wonderful woman and that she was coming over for dinner. I had to come and meet her" as she gave Chuck a big motherly hug.

Chuck pulled back with a smile on his face, "I'm so glad you came. You're going to love Sarah and Travis."

"When are they getting here?" Catherine asks Chuck.

Chuck looks at his watch. "In about 30 minute's maybe."

"Good, that gives you enough time to go get dressed."

"I'm already dressed mom." Chuck says looking down at his blue shirt and blue jean shorts and then back at his mom with question marks in his eyes.

"Maybe for a walk in the park my boy, but not to impress a woman! Go put on a nice pair of pants and a dress shirt."

Chuck sighs. "Okay mom."

"And fix your hair, it's making animal shapes." Chuck's mom and Ellie say.

"Okay, Okay." Chuck says as he walks to his room.

30 minutes later, the door bell rings and Chuck runs out of his room to go answer it.

"I got it!" He tells Ellie and his mom. He opens the door. "Hi Sarah, Travis, Carina…John?"

"I hope its okay; John wanted to come along too." Carina says.

John grunts.

"Sure, my sister loves big dinners." Chuck says.

Chuck gives Sarah a kiss on the cheek and they all walk to the dining area.

"Sarah, Carina, John, this is my mom, Catherine and my big sister Ellie."

"It's great to meet you, Mrs. Bartowski." Sarah says.

"Actually it's Carmichael. I divorced Chucks dad a couple years back."

"I'm sorry to hear that."

"I'm not. He's a stubborn, arrogant man."

"Mom." Ellie says.

"Well it's true, Eleanor."

Devon walks into the room with Natty. "Mama Carmichael!"

"Devon!" Catherine walks over to them. "Natty!"

Natty giggles happily and reaches for her grandmother which picks her up.

"How's my favorite granddaughter?"

Natty giggles.

"She's your only granddaughter." Chuck states.

"Hopefully not for long."

Chuck claps his hands together. "Okay who wants wine?"

Moments later, Morgan and Anna arrive, everyone greets each other. Morgan pulls Chuck off to the side.

"Look, I want to apologize for what I said." Morgan says. "I was drunk and you know how I get when I'm drunk."

Chuck nods. "Yeah, I do, Morgan. But it wasn't your entire fault, it was mine too. I should have…"

"No, buddy, it was my entire fault. You don't need to feel guilty for anything."

"No Morgan, it wasn't…"

"Chuck, I'm trying to say I'm sorry and like always you have turn it into you being the good guy and me being the jerk!"

"Because you are!"

Catherine walks over to them. "Boys let's not argue. Ellie and I made a delicious meal that we'd like to eat at some point. Now both of you apologize."

"But…" Both men say.

"No buts. I want apologizes being said."

"Sorry." Both men say.

"For what?"

"For arguing." Both men say again.

"Good, much better." Catherine kisses both men on the forehead. "Now let's go sit down."

Everyone sits down. Catherine and Ellie go get the lasagna and salad.

Travis looks at Natty who is sitting in a high chair next to him. Natty looks over at Travis. She starts talking to him in her baby talk.

"Looks like their becoming fast friends." Chuck says.

Sarah and Ellie smile at their children.

"So what do you do for a living, Sarah?" Catherina asks as she lays a slice of lasagna on everyone's plate.

"I'm an account…" Sarah is interrupted by the door bell.

"I'll get it." Ellie says.

Ellie answers the door. "Dad?" She says softly.

"Hi honey." Stephen Bartowski says happily.

"This really isn't a good time."

Stephen lets himself in. "Looks like a hell of a good time to me!"

Chuck stands up from his seat.

"I see you're having a family dinner without me." Stephen says looking at his ex wife then at Chuck. "Oh please don't get up on my account."

"What are you doing here?" Chuck asks angrily.

Stephen makes his way to the dinner table and sits in Ellie's seat. "Lasagna, my favorite." He looks at Sarah and Carina. "Gorgeous women, also my favorite. Hi, Stephen Bartowski." He extends his hand to Sarah but Chuck grabs it and pulls it away. "Is she yours?"

"You need to leave."

"This is Ellie's home, only she can tell when to leave."

"Well this is my home too and I'm telling you when to leave."

Stephen chuckles. "You live with your sister?"

"Stephen leave the boy alone." Catherine says.

"Boy? He's a grown ass man living with his sister." Stephen laughs.

Everyone watches Chucks face turn dark red and his hands ball up.

"Stephen I'm warning you."

Stephen looks at Chuck. "Are you made? Do you want to hit me? Go ahead, hit me, I won't stop you."

Sarah rests her hand on Chucks arm. Chuck calms down.

Stephen smiles at the scene. "So she is your girl."

"What does it matter to you?" Chuck says.

"Well I've just been curious as to who'd be the next woman to take all your money, or rather, MY money." Stephen looks at Sarah. "Sorry to tell you this sweetheart but if you divorce my son you're not getting any of my money. I suspended all transactions into Chucks bank account from mine after his last divorce."

"I don't want you or Chuck's money." Sarah says.

"I don't want your money." Chuck tells his father.

"Stephen, leave." Catherine says.

"Now why would I want to do that? We're all just getting to know each other…."

Everyone was really starting to agree with Catherine. Stephen Bartowski was a stubborn arrogant man.

"I guess he can stay." Ellie says. "As long as you behave yourself, dad."

Stephen kisses his daughter on the cheek. "Anything for you baby."

Devon gets Ellie a chair and everyone tries to go back to how they were before Stephen arrived. Chuck sits down next to Sarah and Travis.

"So Sarah what'd you say you worked as?" Catherine asks.

"An accountant. I work independently at home so I can take care of my son." Sarah touches Travis' hand.

"What happen to his father?" Stephen asks.

"He's not with us."

"I can see that. Where is he?"

"It's none of your business." Chuck answers for Sarah.

"Chuck tells me you moved here from Washington, correct?" Catherine asks.

"Yes. I use to work for my father's accountant firm until I moved here."

"Interesting." Stephen says while talking a bite of lasagna.

"What is?" Sarah asked as she tries to figure out what Stephen Bartowski is trying to uncover.

"That you work for your father. Some ungrateful kids don't like to work for the family business."

Chuck threw a discussed look towards his father and lashed back, "I'd say the parents, or rather, the father was the ungrateful one. He expects his kids to do what he wants and the kids, trying to make their father happy, do whatever their father tells them to do without a complaint and without a single thank you from their father. Then one day the father decides to fire his own son."

Stephen smiled at his son and decided to throw a pointed volley of his own back at his son, "Maybe if the son wouldn't have divorced his wife a month of marriage and lost his entire trust fund his father gave him in the divorce, the father wouldn't have had to fire his son!"

"Maybe if the son had had a better role model he wouldn't have gotten divorced."

"Maybe if the son would have pleased his wife properly she wouldn't have had to go looking for his best friend to please her and get her pregnant!" Stephen stood up from his seat as he shouted at his son...

Chuck stood up as well.

"Maybe we should all sit down please." Ellie says as she noticed both Chuck and Stephen have lost their cool.

Chuck throws a napkin he was holding on his plate. "I'm done with this."

Everyone watches Chuck walk out of the house, stunned at hatred between father and son.

Catherine walks over to Stephen and slaps him. "How could you do this?!" She turns to everyone at the table, "I'm sorry you all had to see this."

Catherine grabs Stephen by the collar and drags him away.

Sarah stands up. "I should go look for Chuck."

"I'll watch Travis." Carina says.

Sarah walks out of the house and sees Chuck walking towards the beach which is in to back of the house.

Chuck sits down in the sand and minutes later Sarah sits next to him.

"I'm sorry you had to see that."

"It's alright. You'll probably see it again when you meet my parents."

"You still want to date me after that?"

"Yeah. I mean, yeah, your dad's crazy but so is mine…not as crazy but…well your moms great." Sarah giggles as Chuck bumps her on the shoulder. "Her lasagna is awesome so I'll have to keep dating you until I get the recipe."

"I figured you were just using me to get something."

"Of course. Why else would I want you?" Sarah regretted saying those words when she saw Chuck's face fall. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean it that way."

"I know but it's something I just haven't been able to move past what happened and it still hurts."

"Was it true what your father said? About your wife getting pregnant by your best friend?"

Chuck nods. "She was eight weeks pregnant when we got married. I hadn't noticed. No one had. Not even on our honeymoon."

"Are you sure it wasn't yours?"

"My mother is a very religious person. She had me promise to save myself until marriage."

Sarah stays silent. She wishes her mother had had her promise that. She probably wouldn't have followed it anyways but still, it's the thought that counts.

"How'd you find out?"

"I found them in bed together. In my bed together. They told me everything. That they had been seeing each other for months and that she was pregnant, that the baby wasn't mine." Chuck takes a deep breath and lets it out. "I left the house and drove to a bar and got drunk. I did something unforgivable that night."

Sarah put her hand on Chucks. "Whatever it is I don't need to know about it right now."

They sat in silence for a while until Sarah decided to talk.

"When my ex boyfriend found out I was pregnant he got really mad and told me to 'fix the problem'. I told him I was going to keep it and to deal with it. He said he couldn't deal with a child at this point in his life. He was about to become VP out my father's company and didn't want me or the baby to get in the way of his success." Sarah looks out into the water. "He told me once that he loved me but when he said we would get in the way I knew he never meant them." Sarah looks at Chuck. "To me love meant something completely different when I was with him then it does now that I'm with you."

Chuck smiles, thinking the exact same thing about him and Jill and him and Sarah. He leans over and kisses Sarah softly.

"You want to get out of here, go away with me for a couple days just to clear our heads?" Chuck asks.

"What about Travis?" Sarah asks always thinking of her son first.

"Well of course we'll come with us. He's my responsibly now too."

Chuck stands up and holds his hand out for Sarah. Sarah takes it with no hesitation.

They walk back to the house to get Travis.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thanks for reading. Please review.

Also, I've changed Travis and Natty's ages to 1 years old. I did it for the next chapter.


	9. The Undercover BrotherInLaw Part 1

**The Undercover Brother…In-Law Part 1**

**Wanted to give credit to Engineerd for his great work and advise. Also for Bryce's first line. I read it and thought 'Wow!' And also for Bryces second line that made me laugh.**

This is 3 days after the dinner incident. Chuck and Sarah are still deciding where to go on vacation.

Chuck and Travis are out getting dinner. Sarah home alone doing laundry in her new washer and dryer Chuck bought her after fixing the basement plumbing.

At Sarah's house

There's a knock on the door. Sarah walks to get it thinking it's just Chuck and Travis. She had to remember to give Chuck a key to the house.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Sarah says when she opens the door to find the one person she has been trying to move on from… Bryce

"I needed to see you Sarah. I miss you. I just don't feel like my life has been complete with out you in it. I need you to be the best I can be. Come back to me Sarah, you know you miss me, and I know how much you need me."

Sarah slaps Bryce across the face. "Go the hell away Bryce, I didn't need you then and I don't need your cheating ass now!"

Bryce touches the spot where Sarah slapped him. "Why weren't you this rough when we were dating, maybe I wouldn't had to look elsewhere if you were this spicy?"

Bryce let's himself in. "Cozy little place you got here..." He says looking around the

"What do you want, Bryce?"

"What do I want, I want you. I want what we had together, we were so great together and I want the passion we had." Bryce pulls Sarah to him and forcefully kisses her.

Sarah tries to pull away but Bryce is too strong. "Get off me!" Sarah yells.

Bryce pushes Sarah to the floor, she falls hard on the hard flooring, hurting her wrist. "Fine, why don't you be a little more cold hearted towards the father of your child." Bryce's eyes were searching for any sign of his son, but all he finds is an empty play pin and an equally empty high chair.

"Where's my son?" Bryce asks angrily.

"Go to hell!" Sarah says messaging her wrist.

Bryce walks around the house looking for Travis but doesn't find him. He goes back to Sarah and pulls her up by her hair. "Where's my son?!" He says sternly with gritted teeth.

"You have no son." Sarah says and receives a slap for it.

"I wanted to do this the easy way, Sarah, but I see like always you want to do it the hard way." Bryce stood in front of Sarah and smiled evilly.

"What are you going to do?" Sarah asks scared.

Bryce turns to leave. "I'll be back and I'll be taking my son."

Meanwhile, Chuck is buckling Travis into his cars seat. After Travis is safely in his car seat, Chuck puts the groceries in the truck. He remembers to take out Travis' animal crackers so he can eat them on the way home.

When they get home they see another car pulling out of the driveway and speed away.

Chuck quickly gets Travis out of his car seat and runs into the house. They see Sarah on the floor crying.

"Sarah." Chuck puts Travis on the couch then kneels down next to Sarah. "Sarah!"

Sarah embraces Chuck and cries louder.

"Sarah what happened?" Chuck asks worried. He pulls Sarah away from him to look at her. "Sarah, what happened? Who did this to you?" He looks at Sarah's busted lip and wrist which is turning purple.

Sarah shakes her head and doesn't respond.

"Sarah tell me who did this to you." Chuck gets angry and stands up. "I'm calling the police. Nobody's going to do this to you and get away with it."

Sarah stands up and stops Chuck before he gets to the phone. "Chuck, no, please don't."

"Sarah I need to call the police."

"Please don't. I'll call Carina, okay?"

"Okay. I'll get you some ice for your lip and wrist." Chuck gives Sarah a kiss on the forehead and goes to the kitchen.

Travis, who had gotten off the couch, walks over to his mommy and looks at the blood on her face and starts crying. Chuck runs over and takes him to the kitchen.

"It's okay, Travis. Mommy's okay. She just fell. There's no need to cry."

Chuck sits him on his high chair and gives him a piece of ice to play with.

Minutes later, Carina and John storm into the house. Carina sees Sarah on the couch with a bloody napkin on her lip and an ice pack on her wrist. Then she looks at Chuck.

"Did you do that to my sister?!" She says really pissed off as she walks toward him and pulls out her gun.

Chuck eyes widen so big they almost fall out.

"Carina, no!" Sarah yells.

"Did you hurt my sister?!" Carina yells while pointing her gun at Chuck.

"I didn't do that! I swear! Carina I would never hurt her." Chuck says while backing away from a very pissed off big sister.

"Carina put your gun away, it wasn't him." Sarah says.

Travis starts crying again. Chuck rushes over to get him.

"Put the gun away Carina, you're scaring him." Chuck says.

Carina puts her gun away. "If it wasn't Chuck, who was it?"

Sarah looks down and takes a deep breath. "It was Bryce." She says so softly they don't hear her.

"Sarah, speak louder." Carina says as she sits next to her.

"It was Bryce." Sarah says louder.

"Bryce! Bryce Mother-F-ing Larkin!" Carina yells.

Sarah nods.

"That can't be." Chuck says under his breath while looking away. "It can't be him."

John looks at Chuck with a raised eye-brow after hearing him.

"Sarah we have to call the police so they can arrest him."

"You can't do that. Bryce has family who work for the police, here and in D.C. Even if you call the police, he won't go to jail. They'll find a way to make the report disappear."

"How do you know that?"

"This wouldn't be the first time he hit me. It's why I really left Bryce."

"Why didn't you ever tell me?"

"I was scared."

"Look Sarah, John and I will find him and we'll make sure he goes to jail. He won't hurt you ever again." Carina hugs Sarah. "Now let me see that wrist."

Sarah unwraps the ice pack.

"Sarah that is really purple." Carina says.

"No, I'll be fine, it's just bruised."

"Ellie and Devon are doctors, at least let me take you to them to check you." Chuck says as he can see the pain in Sarah's eyes as Carina continue to inspect her wrist.

Sarah nods.

Minutes later, Sarah, Carina, John, Chuck and Travis walk into Casa Woodcombs.

"Hey everyone." Ellie says, sitting up from her comfortable position cuddle up in Devon on the couch. "Is something wrong?" She says worried after she sees Sarah's lip and her wrist.

Chuck takes Sarah over to Ellie. "There was an incident. Can you make sure Sarah's okay?"

"Of course."

Devon sits up too. "What happen?"

"I fell." Sarah says quickly.

"She got pushed." Carina says. "There's nothing to be ashamed at, Sarah. We're all friends here." Carina turns to Ellie and Devon. "Her ex-boyfriend, Travis' father, Bryce Larkin, came by the house while Chuck and Travis were away and hit her."

At the name Bryce Larkin, Ellie and Devon steal a glance at Chuck. John narrows his eyes at that movement.

"Why? How did he know you were here?" Ellie asks.

"He wanted Travis. He has family that works for the police so I'm sure they helped him find me." Sarah says.

"Devon could you go get me a Icy Hot roll?" Ellie asks

Devon gets up and goes to the bathroom to get the bandage.

"Daddy?" Natty says as she sees her daddy walk past her bedroom.

"Go back to sleep, Natty. Every things okay." Devon says.

But Natty doesn't listen and gets out of her bed.

Travis, who was clinging on to Chuck, sees Natty walk into the living room with Devon. He released him grip on Chuck. Chuck puts him on the floor. He walks over to Natty.

"Hi." He says shyly.

"Hi." Natty repeats.

The two toddlers run to Natty's playroom.

"Ouch!" Sarah says in pain when Sarah wrapped the roll around her wrist.

"Sorry. This should help with the pain. Your wrist is sprained." Ellie explains. "It's swollen, that's it. You'll survive."

"Thanks, Ellie." Sarah, Chuck, and Carina say unison.

"Where's Travis?" Sarah says suddenly in panic.

"It's okay, he went with Natalie to her playroom." Devon reassures her.

Chuck goes to the playroom to find Natty showing Travis all her dolls.

"I see you two are becoming fast friends." Chuck tells the two toddlers.

The small children look up at him and go back to playing.

Chuck makes sure the windows are locked then walks back to the living room.

"I'll back." Chuck says, taking his keys out.

"Where are you going?" Sarah asks.

"To the house, get some things for you and Travis. I want you to stay here until this maniac leaves. I don't want him hurting you again." Chuck explains. "I don't know this Bryce Larkin. He doesn't know you're here."

"I think that's a good idea too. Chuck is right." Carina agrees.

"Yeah, you can stay here as long as you need to." Ellie says.

"Alright, well I'll be back in a little while. Ellie, can you show Sarah to my room, please?" Chuck says as he walks out the door.

"Chuck!" Ellie says, following him to his car.

Chuck turns around.

"Chuck, where are you really going?"

"Like I said, to get Sarah and…"

"Chuck, don't lie to my face."

"I'm just gunna find Bryce, see what he's up to."

"Chuck." Ellie warns.

"Ellie, I'm just talk to him, that's all."

"Just don't get into any trouble, I don't want to go get you from jail again."

"I Promise Ellie, Oh and Sarah and Travis haven't eaten so…" Chuck takes the bag of Chinese food out of his truck and hands it to Ellie.

"We need to talk about your eating habits, little brother."

Chuck smiles at his sisters concern. "Take care of them."

"I will."

Ellie watches Chuck drive away but she's not the only one.

At a local bar…

Chuck slides onto a stool.

"Rough day, Chuck?" Jim, the bartender, asks him as he pours Chuck some coffee.

Chuck looks at the coffee in confusion. Jim only makes coffee for Chuck because he's the only one that comes to a bar and drinks coffee instead of liquor. "How'd you know I was coming?"

"I had a hunch." Jim nods over to a table by the corner.

Chuck sees Bryce sitting there sipping a beer, just where he knew he'd be.  
Chuck, Bryce, and Morgan would come here when they were having problems and just drink their sorrows away. Of course, Chuck would use coffee to drink his sorrows away but still.

Chuck grabs a beer and his coffee mug and heads over for the table. He slides the beer over to Bryce and sits casually in the chair across from him.

"Chuck?" Bryce says, looking up at him.

"Bryce." Chuck takes a sip of his coffee getting ready for the verbal chess match with his long time friend and enemy.

John walks into the bar and scans the room for Chuck. He sees him sitting with Bryce. Carina had shown him a picture of 'the SOB that got Sarah pregnant and kicked her to the curve' as Carina told him.  
_'How did Chuck know Bryce was there? Why'd Chuck lie about where he was going?'_ John thought to himself as he ordered a scotch.

He watched them start to talk like two buddies that hadn't seen each other in a while.

'_Maybe Bryce and Chuck were friends and Chuck was watching Sarah for Bryce. Maybe Chuck knew Bryce was going to go to Sarah's house and let on purpose so Bryce could hit Sarah.'_ Hundreds of thoughts ran through Johns head as he watched the other two men. He had never paid much attention to the handyman but it was time he did. He was a government officer after all, if something bad was gunna go down between these two and Sarah then he was gunna stop them. The less trouble his girlfriends sister got into the more time he could spend with Carina.

**Okay bare with me. I needed to add Bryce in the mix and get him out of the way…for now. They'll be one or two more parts but then we'll go back to the happy go lucky story and the vacation.**

**Thanks for reading and please review.**


	10. The Undercover BrotherInLaw Part 2

**The Undercover Brother…In-Law Part 2**

**Thank you to Engineerd for being a great beta reader.**

Chuck grabs a beer and his coffee mug and heads over for the table. He slides the beer over to Bryce and sits casually in the chair across from him.

"Chuck?" Bryce says, looking up at him.

"Bryce." Chuck takes a sip of his coffee getting ready for the verbal chess match with his long time friend and enemy.

John walks into the bar and scans the room for Chuck. He sees him sitting with Bryce. Carina had shown him a picture of 'the SOB that got Sarah pregnant and kicked her to the curve' as Carina told him.  
_'How did Chuck know Bryce was there? Why'd Chuck lie about where he was going?'_ John thought to himself as he ordered a scotch.

He watched them start to talk like two buddies that hadn't seen each other in a while.

'_Maybe Bryce and Chuck were friends and Chuck was watching Sarah for Bryce. Maybe Chuck knew Bryce was going to go to Sarah's house and let on purpose so Bryce could hit Sarah.'_ Hundreds of thoughts ran through Johns head as he watched the other two men. He had never paid much attention to the handyman but it was time he did. He was a government officer after all; if something bad was going to go down between these two and Sarah then he was going to stop them. The less trouble his girlfriend's sister got into the more time he could spend with Carina.

"Thanks." Bryce picks up the beer Chuck brought him.

"Just take it easy, you wouldn't want to get violent and hit an innocent person."

Bryce gives Chuck an inquisitive look as if he knew what he did but how could Chuck know?

"How have you been?" Chuck asks.

"I'm doing okay. You?"

"Same. So what brings you to the West coast?"

"Business. I'm an accountant."

"Hey, I heard. For some big wig company, right?"

"Yeah. How about you? What are you doing these days?"

"I'm a handy man."

"A handy man? What happened to your architect degree?"

"It's in a box somewhere. After the divorce my dad called all his friends and told them I was an 'unreliable, irresponsible architect that would take your money and leave.'"

"Harsh."

Chuck nods. "How about you? I'm sure your life doesn't suck."

Bryce leans back on his chair and takes a swing at his beer. "I made a huge mistake."

"Who's wife you'd get pregnant this time?" Chuck half jokes.

Bryce slumps over. "Chuck, I want to apologize for…"

"There's nothing to apologize about, Bryce. That was…what…5 years ago! It wasn't your fault…a least not all your fault. It was mine. I was too busy working to pay attention to her needs."

"Have you heard from her any? Do you know how she is? How the baby is?"

Chuck hesitates. "No. I'm sure she's fine though. She did get most of my money so…I'm sure she and your child are living a very glamorous life. Have you talked to her?"

Bryce nods. "I called her once. She hung up on me. I don't even know if she had a boy or a girl."

"How about this new woman you knocked up? Who'd you steal her away from?"

"She was my girlfriend…also my boss' daughter. We had a boy. She ran off with him a couple months ago."

"You sure you didn't scare her away?"

"Look Chuck, this woman is crazy. She ran off with my child. I know they're here. I need him back. I don't what she's doing to him. I'm doing this for his safety."

Chuck did not believe single word that was coming out of Bryce's mouth.

"What's her name?"

"Sarah Burton but she changed her last name to Walker. I'm telling you Chuck this woman is crazy. She'll change her name just to get away from me with my child."

"What's the kid's name?"

"Travis. I think he's about a year old."

"You think?"

"Okay so I wasn't a very good father but I want to fix that, I really do. But I need to find them first. Maybe with Sarah's help and we can be a family."

"Do you love her?"

"Sure."

Chuck looks at Bryce with a questioning look.

"It's complicated."

"Everything is with you." Chuck stands up. "You want another beer?"

"Yeah."

As Chuck walks over to the bar to get two beers he sees John sitting at a table. He makes it looks as if he didn't see him and keeps walking.  
He gets two beers and walks back to Bryce.

"Finally decided to drink, I see." Bryce says to the beer in Chuck hand.

"One beer will do me some good. I do have to sit here and listen to your problems after all."

Chuck and Bryce laugh.

A couple of drinks later Chuck has Bryce spilling out his guts. (Not literally)

Bryce slurs his words as he talks. "But the real reason I'm here is because I have a client who loves kids. She's head over heels for them."

Chuck also slurs his words as he talks. "Let me guess, you told her you had a kid?"

"Yeah! See, I told her I was a single father, that my girlfriend had died in a terrible accident and had left me to take of our son all alone."

Chuck and Bryce laugh.

"Wait! Wait! That's not all! She felt so sorry for me she took me to her house to comfort me and she also said she'd pay me double for my services to her! I'm gunna be rich!"

"What if she finds out it was all a lie?"

Bryce leans over and whispers. "See, that's the best part, it'll all be true." Bryce smiles.

"What, you gunna kill Sarah in a horrible accident and take the kid?"

"Yeah. That kid's gunna make me a millionaire. I have it all planned out. My client's gunna feel so bad for the kid she'll offer to marry me and be his new mommy!"

Chuck laughs. "That's great! That's a great plan!"

Chuck's phone rings. He sees its Sarah and turns off his phone.

"Who was that?"

"This girl I'm seeing. She has me on a string. I better get going. I need to be good to her too. Her father's a millionaire and I really need some money." Chuck stands up and rocks back and forth.

"Yeah, I need to be going to."

Bryce and Chuck walk outside to look for their cars.

"So Sarah? You seen her lately?"

"Actually I did. Just before I came here I went to go pay her a visit."

"What happen?" Chuck says as they walk into an alley.

"She was un-cooperative and I had to sort her out."

"You hit her?"

"Right in the mouth!" Bryce laughs.

John follows the two drunks to the alley. They're swaying back and forth talking.

"Hey," Bryce says looking around. "my cars not over here."

Chuck stands up straight and is suddenly sober and not slurring his words. "Good guess."

Before Bryce or even John can react Chuck punches Bryce in the eye making him fall to the ground.

John walks over to Chuck as he kicks Bryce on the floor.

"You had me fooled, Handy man." John says, stopping Chuck's attack.

Chuck turns to look at John. "What are you doing here?"

"I came to see what my sister in-laws boyfriend was doing with her ex-boyfriend. How do you know this scum bag, anyway?"

"He's the one that got my wife pregnant."

John grunts. "Well isn't that convenient. How'd you know he'd be here?"

"We use to come here when we were younger. Why?"

"I was starting to think that maybe you two were planning on killing Sarah."

"Well he is. That's why I got him drunk. I wanted to know what he was really up to."

"And?"

"He wants to kill Sarah and get Travis so he can get married to this rich lady."

"Hold on, I saw you drink though. How are you not drunk?"

"I have my ways. Now I need your help."

"You want me to kill him?" John says as he takes out his gun.

"NO! I want you to beat me up."

"What?" John says as he puts his gun away.

"I want to make it look as if we were jumped. Here." Chuck hands John his wallet then he leans down to take Bryce's wallet. He takes out all his money and credit cards and gives them to John then he throws the empty on the floor. "Alright, rough me up, not too hard, than called the police. The officer will see we're drunk and not waste his time with us."

John stuffs everything in his jacket and shakes his head. "You surprise me, handy man. I never pictured you doing this. I like it though."

Chuck puts his hand on Johns shoulder. "Well thanks."

"I didn't say I liked you though." John says before punching Chuck in the stomach.

John did as Chuck asked and called the police. The police arrived in minutes.

"You called?" The officer asks as he walks over to John.

"Yeah." John shows the officer his DEA badge. "Found these two here. Seems they've been robbed."

"Serves them right. They're drunk. You know them?"

"Curly haired one is my fiancés sister's boyfriend. Never seen the other one."

"Alright well…" The officer walks over to the two unconscious guys on the ground. "I have to take them into custody. I'll write a report once they're awake. I'd doubt they'd remember anything in their drunk state, though."

'_Okay so the handy man's plan wasn't going exactly as planned.'_ John thought.

**Okay, no more fighting until Bryce finds out about Chuck and Sarah or Chuck's dad returns.**

**Thanks for reading. Please review.**

**Next Up: You got some 'splaining to do.**


	11. You got some'splaining to do

**You got some 'splaining to do**

**It's been a while but I'm back and so is Sarah and her handy man! This chapter hasn't been beta'd yet so all mistakes and lameliness are my fault.**

**Summary of what previously happened: Chuck is a handyman fixing Sarah's house…among other things…not yet though, in future chapters. Sarah is a single mother with a 1 year old son named Travis. Chuck and Sarah had never met before but they already have one person in common, Bryce Larkin a.k.a "the bastard who got Sarah pregnant and kicked her to the curve" a.k.a "the bastard who got Chuck kicked out of Stanford" a.k.a the guy who's trying to kill Sarah. Alright so Chuck and Sarah go on a date and they fall in love. Sarah meets Chuck's family which doesn't go well. They decide to take a vacation but not before Bryce hits Sarah. Chuck ends up beating the crap out of Bryce after finding out his plan to kill Sarah, take Travis, and get married to some rich lady. And then…**

Bryce and Chuck are in jail.

Chuck is woken up by laughter. He groans in pain and holds his head.

John and Officer Toby stop laughing and look at the groaning man behind the bars.

"Good morning, Beauty…although right now you look more like Beast." John and Officer Toby laugh again.

"Oh god…what happened?" Chuck sits up and holds his head.

"You got the crap beat out of that's what happened."

Chuck looks, with his good eye, at the large black man sitting across from him. "And you are?"

"Big Mike. You alright there, kid?" Big Mike looks at all the bruises on Chuck and his black eye.

"Oh some minor scratches, a broken rib or three, a couple stitches on his forehead and eye brow but all in all he'll live." Officer Toby says as he unlocks the bar door. "Come on, you got to sign some paperwork so you can leave."

Chuck slowly gets up and walks out the cell. "How long have I been here?"

"_We've_ been here for 5 hours." John says before taking a sip of his coffee.

"You got another live one." Big Mike says nodding toward where Bryce was stirring awake.

"I'm gunna…" Bryce says covering his mouth.

Big Mike kicks a bucket over to him. "Have some respect, some of us live here!"

When Bryce is finished puking his guts out he looks at Chuck. "Dude, what happened?"

"You don't remember?"

"No."

"We got jump walking to our cars at the bar."

"Are you serious?"

"Yeah, they took our money, your credit cards, and cell phones."

"Oh god, my credit cards!" Bryce groans.

"Your credit cards are the last thing you should be worried about." Big Mike says looking at the equally beat up white guy.

"Alright Mr. Larkin, get up and sign these papers so you can get out of my cell."

Bryce slowly gets up, his arm in a cast.

After signing their release papers the men walk outside. A cab is waiting for Bryce.

"Hey thanks for all your help, Chuck." Bryce says.

"What are friends for? Tell me know how things work out with you and Sarah. If you need any more help just let me know."

"I will." Bryce gets into the cab and drives off.

"Chuck?" Says a sad voice behind him.

Chuck turns around to see a crying Sarah. "Sarah?!"

"I can't believe you. You know Bryce. You two probably had this whole thing planned out."

"Sarah, no, let me explain."

"I don't need an explanation. I know exactly what happened. Bryce and you are pals. He sent you to spy on me. I actually fell for your tricks. I fell for you."

"Sarah, that's not…"

"Don't. I don't ever want to see you again."

Sarah gets back into the car she came from. Carina, who drove Sarah there, walks over to Chuck and slaps him.

"You come near my sister again and I'll kill you." Carina then looks at John. "And you and I need to talk."

Carina gets back into her car and drives away.

Tears roll down Chucks cheeks as he watches Sarah leave.

"Come on." John tells him.

Chuck gets into Johns Crown Vic.

"How did they know I was here?"

"I told them…well I told Carina you were in jail. She must have told Sarah."

"You think?!" Chuck says angrily.

"Hey don't yell at me. This is your fault. Why didn't you tell Sarah you knew him in the first place?"

"I was going to tell her when the time came."

"Well the time is now." John stops the car.

They are park in front of Sarah's house. Sarah and Carina are walking into the house with Travis.

"Go." John says.

"Carina's gunna kill me."

"I'll take care of her."

"Why are you doing this?"

"Believe it or not but I do have feelings…for Carina at least. If Sarah's not happy than Carina's not happy. How am I going to marry her than?"

"You asked Carina to marry you?"

"That doesn't matter right now. Just go fix things with Sarah."

"Okay."

Chuck and John get out of the car and knock on Sarah's door.

Carina answers the door. "Didn't I tell you to stay away?!"

"Carina, just let him explain what happened to Sarah." John says.

"You need to be quiet, you're already in enough trouble helping this back stabber."

"Carina, trust me, he's not a back stabber. He was actually looking out for Sarah."

Carina looks at Chucks puffy red eyes. _Please_ they beg her.

"Okay." Carina says. "You talk to her. You have 10 minutes." Carina moves so Chuck can walk in.

Chuck walks in and goes straight to Sarah's room. He finds her crying into her pillow.

"Sarah." He says gently.

Sarah looks up. "Get out!"

"Sarah listen to me."

"No!" She throws her pillow at Chuck. "I never want to see you again."

Chuck catches the pillow but throws it on the floor. "I couldn't go a day without seeing you." Chuck closes the door to her bedroom and goes to sit next to her. "Give me 10 minutes and I can explain everything to you. After, if you still feel the same, I'll leave you alone and you'll never see me again."

Sarah nods slightly. Chuck tells her all that happened at the bar up until John drove him to her house.

Sarah is speechless. She doesn't know what to say. She can't believe Bryce would actually kill her.

"Sarah, do you forgive me?"

Sarah lowers her head.

Chuck takes that as a no and stands up to leave.

"Do you forgive me?" Sarah asks, still with her head down.

Chuck turns to look at her in amazement. "What?"

"Do you forgive me for jumping to conclusion and accusing you of something you didn't do?"

"No."

"Oh." Sarah felt a lump in her throat.

"No because you have nothing to apologize about. If I was in your position I'd accuse me too." Chuck sits back down next to her. "I should have told you once I knew it was Bryce Larkin but I wanted to protect you and Travis. I wanted to deal with him without anyone finding out. If anything happened to you and Travis I don't know what I'd do. We've only known each other for a short period of time but I already think of you as my family, Ellie does too."

That brought a smile to Sarah's face. "Really?"

"Yes. Why would I lie?"

Sarah shrugs but embraces Chuck. "I'm sorry John had to beat you up."

Even though Sarah can't see it Chuck has a very pained look on his face as Sarah presses on his injuries. "It's cool. It doesn't even hurt that much as long as I don't get pressure on my ribs."

Sarah quickly releases him. "Oh my gosh! I was hurting you. I'm so sorry."

"Sarah stop apologizing. I did nothing wrong."

"I know but I'm s…never mind."

Outside, a dark figure watches them kiss.

"What friend you are, Chuck Bartowski. You'll pay for taking my woman." The shadow walks away.

**Thanks to those who are sticking to the story in though it was a month , more or less, since I last updated the story.**

**Thanks for reading and please review. Tell me if you loved it or if you hated it. Don't go easy on me. Just let it all out.**


	12. Travis vs the Carmichael Ranch

**Travis' adventure at the Carmichael Ranch (Beta'd Version)**

**Alright so I skipped a chapter I was writing about Sarah taking care of Chuck and just went straight to them going on vacation. Chuck is better and everything is good between Chuck and Sarah…or is it?**

**This chapter mostly revolves around Travis and his experiences at the ranch and how he sees things when he and Sarah go on vacation with Chuck.**

**There first stop is at the Carmichael Ranch, where Chuck's family use to live and still go there for holidays.**

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

**Breakfast**

"Cockadoodaldo!"

Travis sat up in a terrible startle. The noise outside stirred him from his dreams but this new place had so many new noises and weird animals.

Travis climbs out of crib Chuck's uncle set up for him in the room across from Chuck and Sarah's.

He grabs his blanket and his stuffed panda bear he got from Grandma when she took him to the National Zoo before he left Washington.

Travis jumps when he sees a furry ball under his crib. The ball starts moving so Travis runs out of the room just to run into Chuck.

"Whoa there, what's the rush?" Chuck says laughing.

Travis points to the furry ball under his crib which magically turns into Chuck's golden retriever, Max. Travis runs over and pets Max.

Chuck shakes his head and laughs. "Alright guys, how about we go find breakfast." Chuck holds out his hand for Travis who gladly takes it.

Chuck takes him to the kitchen and sits him on the counter. "So what would you like for breakfast?"

Travis smiles at Chuck.

"Pancakes? Bacon? Eggs?"

Travis nods.

"Alright then."

Max starts barking.

"But first we need to feed Max." Chuck takes Travis off the counter. He walks over to a cabinet and takes out the dog food.

Max walks over with his bowl in his mouth.

Chuck hands Travis a food scooper. "Here, help me feed him."

Travis scoops up some food to put it in Max's bowl but misses and the food lands on the floor. He watches Max quickly scramble to get every piece into his mouth.

Chuck helps him with the next scoop and they get every piece in the bowl.

"Good job." Chuck says with a big smile as they finish filling up the bowl. "Now we have to wash our hands before we eat so we don't get sick."

They wash their hands. Then Chuck sits Travis at the table. He brings over a bowl, flour, blueberries, strawberries, and other ingredients and utensils.

"Blueberries or strawberries?"

Travis point at both.

"You read my mind." Chuck puts all the pancake ingredients in the bowl then hands Travis a whip. "Ready to mix?"

Travis nods and starts mixing.

Later, Chuck and Travis take a tray of food to Sarah who's still in bed.

"Mommy!" Travis says as he jumps on the bed to wake up his sleeping mommy.

"Travis." Sarah says as she sits up and sees Chuck standing there with a tray. "Chuck?"

"We made you breakfast." Chuck lays the tray in front of Sarah then gives her a kiss as he sits next to her.

"Mommy! Mommy!" Travis says wanting attention too. He kisses his mom on the cheek.

"You two are great." Sarah says.

Travis points to the pancakes and then to himself.

"Travis made the pancakes." Chuck says.

"You did Travis?"

Travis smiles proudly.

"Well it does look like you flipped them too." Sarah looks at the misshaped pancakes.

Sarah cuts a small piece of pancake and gives it to Travis then cuts another for herself.

"Mmmm! Chuck, Travis, they're delicious! I love blueberries and strawberries."

"It was Travis' idea to put both in."

Travis smiles and takes a whole pancake off the tray, sits on the bed, and eats it.

Chuck and Sarah laugh.

As breakfast continues Travis moves to sit in front of the two grownups and the tray to get better access to the food.

He hands Chuck and Sarah each a slice of bacon then grabs two for himself.

"I don't see how that's fair." Chuck says. "How come you get two and we only get one each?"

Travis giggles.

"It is nothing to giggle about young man." Chuck says mocking strictness. "I guess I'll have to teach you how to share, huh?"

"Well I don't see how you can teach him how to share seeing as you haven't been sharing lately."

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Really? Last night I recall you putting Travis to bed early so you could have me all to yourself."

"That's difference."

"How?"

"You're not food."

"Last night did you not say how yummy I was?"

Chuck blushes. "There is a child present Sarah."

Travis continues to eat his bacon as the grownups talk amongst themselves. He looks at the maple syrup then at the bacon. He decides to dip the strip of bacon in the syrup. As he takes out the bacon the syrup drips all over the tray, the bed sheets, and down his arm. He pays no real attention to it and just eats his food.

"Travis, no." Sarah says quickly grabbing a napkin to clean everything up.

Travis looks at her confused and starts licking the syrup off his arm to help clean up.

"Travis you're making yourself all sticky."

Chuck takes the tray off Sarah. "How about you give sticky Travis a bath while I clean the dishes and the bed. When were done, I can show you around the ranch."

"Sounds great." Sarah walked off trying not to let Travis touch anything and their way to the bathroom, leaving Chuck to clean the bedroom.

"look at the bright side Chuck, now you have a reason to change the sheets before tonight."

Chuck looked up as she walked away with a smirk on her face. Chuck just blushed and rushed off to the kitchen with the dishes…

**Bath time**

Travis looks at all the bubbles in the tub. The tub was so big it looked like a swimming pool. He splashes the water and bubbles fly everywhere.

Sarah laughs as she watches Travis enjoy the big tub.

Chuck walks into the bathroom with a small panda robe in his hand. "We ready to get out yet?" He asks Travis.

Travis shakes his head.

"3 more minutes then it's time to dry off."

"He's enjoying the big tub too much."

"I can install one of these at your house if you'd like."

"No thanks, I mean, the one I have now is good. I'm not going to live there forever, just until I have enough money to get a nicer place."

"I've actually been thinking that maybe…" Chuck is interrupted by Sarah's cell phone.

"It must be Carina. I promised I'd call her last night. I'll be right back." Sarah says before getting up to answer the phone.

Travis watches Chuck sit on the side of the tub and pull the drain cover. He watches the water swirl around the drain. He stands up with bubbles sticking to his body and covers the drain with his foot.

Travis and Chuck laugh.

"You are one funny kid." Chuck says.

Chuck rinses him off then puts the robe on him. Then carries him to the bedroom when Sarah is talking on her phone with Carina.

"Carina I'm fine, we're fine. Calm down. I didn't call you last next because we were…" Sarah looks at Chuck and smiles. "busy."

Chuck smiles back at her.

Travis jumps on the bed seeing as no one is paying attention to him.

Chuck walks over to Sarah and kisses her neck which causes Sarah to giggle.

"Chuck, stop!" Sarah says slapping him playfully on the back.

Chuck stops and goes back to Travis. He puts a clean diaper on him, and clean clothes then they leave the room to find him shoes.

Travis watches Chuck pull a string from the ceiling and stairs fall down.

"Watch out there Travis." Chuck says moving Travis out of the way of the falling stairs.

Chuck carries Travis up the stairs to the attic. Travis looks at all the toys and boxes everywhere. He runs over to a tricycle.

"Hey, that used to be mine." Chuck follows him over and sits him on it. "Well first it was Ellie's then she gave it to me when I was about your age." Chuck puts Travis' feet on the peddles. "Push down." Chuck tells him before standing behind him and pushing him around the attic.

Travis giggles.

Chuck stops when they get to a box labeled 'Chuck's baby clothes'. "I think we might find what we're looking for here." Chuck opens the box and searches through all the stuff.

Meanwhile, Travis gets off the tricycle and walks around the attic looking at other toys.

"Ah ha!" Chuck says taking out a pair of small toddler boots and holding them up in victory.

Travis runs over to him and holds out a foot.

Chuck laughs. "You're one smart kid." Chuck sits him down and unties the laces. "These use to be mine too. They were my first pair of boots. My dad bought them for me when we first came here."

Sarah, who has just finished talking to Carina, walks up the stairs to the attic to find Chuck and Travis.

"That guy I was yelling at the other night that was my dad." Chuck sighs. "He use to be my hero, you know, the guy I looked up to." Chuck shakes his head. "That was before the money got to his head. That's sort of why my mom divorced him."

"How old were you?" Sarah says starling Chuck.

Chuck turns around to look at her. "I had just turned 17." Chuck goes back to untying the laces. "Even though I was 17, I had no idea what was going on. My parents and Ellie hadn't told me anything. I always saw them arguing but I never made anything of it. I just thought it was normal arguing parents had."

Sarah sits next to Chuck and Travis. "I can't say I relate. My parents never argued not even when my mom found out my dad had cheated on her."

"Really?"

"Yeah, well that's want they told me. It was a year into their marriage. My dad had gone on a business trip to Sweden. He had an affair with a Swedish model. When he came back to the states he told my mom about what he did. They decided to forget about it, work it out, and just leave it in the past. Well, nine month later, my mom goes to get the mail and finds a baby on the door step. The woman my dad had an affair with got pregnant and died during child birth. The man she was with at the time found out it wasn't his and came all the way to the United States from Sweden to drop off a baby. Even then my parents didn't argue about were or not to keep Carina. Three years later they had me. They never even told Carina and I we were half sister until we were in middle school. It didn't make a difference to us though."

"Your parents sound cool."

"They are. I mean, not as cool as yours but…"

Chuck bumps Sarah's shoulders with his.

"When it comes to business my dad becomes very serious. You don't want to mess with him. My mom's real sweet, kind of like your mom but not very religious. Maybe if she was I wouldn't have gotten pregnant without getting married first."

"But then you wouldn't have come to Burbank and we wouldn't have met."

"True."

Travis looks at the grownups talking and his feet still shoeless. He grabs the shoe Chuck has already unlaced and tries to put it on.

Chuck helps Travis put on the shoes. "My dad wasn't always mean though. When we lived here and didn't have a ton of money like he does now, he used to be really cool. He taught me how to ride a bike, ride a horse, swim, you know, all the things you're father is suppose to teach you."

"When did things start to change?"

"When I was about 15. My dad moved us to the city for his job a year earlier. He promised that the city life wouldn't change any of us but it did. He would go on more and more 'business' trips and be less and less at home."

"Why do you say it like that?"

"I always thought, had this feeling, that there was more to those business trips than he was telling me about. He would come home with a lot of money and bruises. When I asked he would give some lame excuses about him 'falling' or him 'tripping' over his luggage at the airport. When I asked him about the money he would just say 'it was a big client'.

The first summer I went to work with him, I was 14; he would let me sit in on meeting so I could see how he did business. I found that all fascinating how my father had so much power. The second summer though, he wouldn't let me into the meetings. He would actually lock me out of his office. One day he told me to just stop coming to work." Chuck sighs. "Then, 4 years later, he tells me to come work with him. Out of the blue, he says 'Son, you're going to work for me.' I, like every choice my father makes, have no say in whether I want to or not."

Travis stands up after Chuck ties his shoe laces.

"But you know what? That's in the past like all of the other bad things in my life. I'm starting off fresh now." Chuck stands up and then helps Sarah up. "We're starting off fresh. Plus, I'd like to hear about your life."

"Maybe some other time, let's not get into that now."

"Okay, then how about that tour now." Chuck was a little disappointed in her response but he knew that over time he would do the little things to make it easier for her.

Travis smiles in joy of finally getting out of the attic and seeing the adults talk.

**Chewbacca**

Travis is standing in between Chuck and Sarah as they walk over to the barn.

Outside, there are pens where different kinds of small animals are.

Travis stops to look at them.

"This way Travis, we'll see them later." Chuck says.

Travis runs over to Chuck and Sarah. Chuck picks up Travis.

Chuck opens a door and there's another furry ball on the floor. The furry ball stands up but this one isn't Max. It's a lot taller.

"This is Chewbacca, he's a horse." Chuck explains.

"Chewbacca?" Sarah asks with a smile.

"I was 6 and really into Star Wars, give me a break."

Sarah holds up her hands.

Chuck pulls an apple out of his pocket and hands it to Travis. "Wanna feed him?"

Travis takes the apple and extends his hand. Chewbacca carefully takes the apple out of his small hand. Travis looks at Chuck and giggles.

"Yeah, see, he doesn't hurt." Chuck explains.

Travis reaches out his head to pet Chewbacca. Chuck walks closer to Chewbacca so he can touch him.

Chuck looks behind him. "Well are you just gunna stand there or take the other apple out of my pocket and feed Chewbacca?"

"Yeah, me and animals don't do well together." Sarah says.

"Are you scared? Do I need to hold you too?" Chuck says while wrapping his arm around Sarah.

"Mommy!" Travis says petting Chewbacca's head.

"Come on Sarah; show Travis you're not scared of a horse."

Sarah sighs and takes the other apple out of Chuck's pocket.

Travis watches his mom slowly reach her apple filled hand out to the horse.

The horse moved to get the apple out of Sarah's hand but Sarah moves her hand away and drops the apple.

Travis and Chuck laugh.

Sarah storms out of the barn saying, "That wasn't funny."

**Tricksters and Traitors**

Chuck and Travis go after her. Chuck stands Travis on the ground.

"What is it?" Chuck asks worried about Sarah.

Sarah starts laughing.

"Wha…WHAT! Did you trick me into thinking you were mad?!"

Sarah stops laughing and looks at Chuck with an innocent look.

"Oh, I see how it is!"

Travis watches, confused, as Chuck chases Sarah around. Travis decides to play too and runs after his mommy too.

"Get her Travis! Get her!" Chuck says.

Travis runs after Sarah laughing.

"No Travis, don't listen to him! Get him!" Sarah says.

Travis stops running and looks at Chuck.

Chuck stops running and looks at Travis. "Don't listen to her. Don't do it."

Travis starts running after Chuck. Chuck runs away.

"Traitor! How could you betray me like this? I thought we were friends." Chuck says.

Travis laughs and keeps chasing after Chuck.

**Boo Boo Kisses**

Travis falls to the ground and starts crying.

Sarah and Chuck run over to him. Sarah picks him up.

"Uh oh." Chuck lifts up Travis' leg to show Sarah his scraped knee.

Travis sees his knee covered in blood and cries even louder.

Chuck takes Travis from Sarah. "It's okay, little guy. Let's get that cleaned up."

They walk in the house then into the bathroom. Chuck sits Travis on the sink as he takes out the First Aid kit from under the sink.

Travis sniffles as he looks at Chuck open the box full of different colored band-aids.

"Do you know what you're doing?" Sarah says, watching Chuck dip a cotton ball into some rubbing alcohol.

"As a kid I use to get scraps a lot. I know what I'm doing plus my sister's a doctor remember?"

"I don't think you do know what you're doing. Move over, let mommy show you how's it's done."

Sarah moved Chuck to the side and took out the anti-bacterial cream.

Travis moves away from Sarah not knowing what the clear cream his mommy was holding.

"It's okay, Travis, this doesn't sting." Sarah explains to Travis.

Travis moves back over to his mommy. He lets her spread some cream on his scrap and indeed it doesn't sting.

"Now, which colorful band-aid would you like?" Sarah asks holding the band-aids in front of Travis.

Travis takes out a green band-aid and hands it to Sarah who puts in over his scrape.

"There." Sarah says with a smile. Sarah leans down and kisses Travis' boo boo. "All better."

Travis giggles.

"You know," Chuck says, "I got hurt too. I think I need a kiss to make me feel better too." Chuck pucks out his lips.

"I don't think so." Sarah laughs while pushing past Chuck with Travis.

"Oh come on, I could be dying!" Chuck jokes.

Sarah rolls her eyes but turns around to give Chuck a small kiss on the lips.

"That's it?"

Sarah looks at Travis.

"Later than."

**Fruit Of The Loom**

Chuck takes two baskets out of the barn.

"Who wants to pick some fruit?" Chuck says, leaning down to talk to Travis and hand him a basket.

Travis giggles and takes the basket from Chuck.

When they get to the fruit garden Chuck shows Travis and Sarah all the fruit there is.

"First we get peaches and oranges." Chuck lifts Travis up so he can see the peach and orange trees.

Travis pulls an orange from its tree and hands it to Chuck who holds up his basket.

They fill up Travis' basket with oranges and peaches.

"Next, all the way down here," Chuck says, getting down on his knees.

Travis copies Chuck and gets down on his knees too but screams when his scraped knee hits the ground.

Chuck picks him up and sits him on the ground.

"It's Okay Travis, down here we have strawberries and they make everything better!"

Travis looks at the green bunches then at Chuck.

Chuck lifts up the green bunches so Travis can see all the strawberries.

Travis' eyes widen as he sees all the bright red strawberries.

Chuck pulls out a strawberry, cleans it on a napkin he brought, and hands it to Travis.

Travis takes a bite of the strawberry, red juice slipping out of his mouth.

"You wanna pick some more?" Chuck asks him, placing another basket by him.

Travis nods.

Sarah bends down to pick some strawberries.

"Whoa! I see London, I see France, I see Sarah's underpants!" Chuck sings while pointing at Sarah's rear end.

Sarah quickly stands up straight and pulls her shirt down to cover her underwear.

Chuck laughs.

Travis looks up at the two adults. His mommy's face looks really red, almost as red as the strawberries. Chuck's face is also red but from laughing so hard.  
Travis shrugs and goes back to eating each strawberry he picks.

"Chuck you are so childish!" Sarah says, trying not to laugh.

Chuck keeps laughing until he gets hit in the back of the head with a basket. "Ow, that hurt."

"Serves you right."

Travis watches Chuck rub his head.

**On top of the world**

Travis holds on tightly to Chucks head as he sits on Chucks shoulders.

His mom is carrying a picnic basket with the fruit they picked, a salad from vegetables they also picked, and some sandwiches.

Chuck is carrying a cooler with fresh lemonade.

They got to the top of a big hill they were climbing and Sarah lays a blanket on the grass.

Chuck lifts Travis off his shoulders and stands him on the grass.

Travis looks at all the green grass surrounding them. They are so up that Chuck's big ranch looks small.

He could also see others ranches and even the city from where he was standing.

Chuck grabs him and spins him around. Travis giggles.

Chuck stops spinning and just holds him. "Isn't it great? It's like being on top of the world. You can see everything from here."

Sarah stands up and stands beside Chuck. "It's such a beautiful view."

"Yeah." Chuck puts him arm around Sarah. "It's awesome."

They sit down and start eating.

Travis looks over at Chuck and Sarah feeding each other food and bumping shoulders.

"Mommy! Mommy!" Travis says as he gets up to sit on Sarah's lap and get her attention on him.

"Travis!" Sarah lifts Travis up in the air and then sits him back on her lap. "Are you having a good time?"

"Yeah!" Travis answers. He reaches his arms out to Chuck. "Daddy!"

Chuck suddenly turns into a statue hearing Travis call him 'daddy'.

"Daddy!"

Chuck unfreezes realizing he wasn't imagining things. "Hey." He puts up Travis.

Travis snuggles closer up to Chuck and falls asleep shortly after.

Sarah smiles.

"Did you hear what I heard?" Chuck says with a big grin on his face.

"Yeah, I guess I won't be the only one calling you daddy anymore."

Sarah lays down next to Chuck and Travis snuggles in close to Chuck.

"You know Sarah, I've been thinking…" Chuck starts to talk again but he can hear Sarah's breath even out as she fell asleep.

Chuck just sat there enjoying the view and feel of his loved ones next to him.


	13. The Job Offers

**The job offers**

**Thanks to Engineerd for beta reading and to the readers who are sticking with the story. Better late…really really late than never, right?**

**Recap: Single mother Sarah moves to California with two year old son Travis. Chuck is a handyman who gets a job fixing he house but that is not all he fixes. Carina hooks them up. Morgan almost tears them apart. They get together. They develop a serious relationship. Chuck's mom approves. Chuck's dad thinks Sarah's a gold digger. Chuck, Sarah, and Travis go on vacation. Chuck tries to ask Sarah if they should move in together but gets interrupted each time.**

**Chuck, Sarah, and Travis return from their 3 relaxing, peaceful weeks of vacation…**

Sarah falls back on her bed and groans. "So. Tired."

Chuck walks into the room. "I just tucked Travis into his crib. He's out like a rock."

"So will I in 5 seconds."

"Oh come on, we finally have a moment to ourselves to do whatever we want and you want to go to sleep?"

"Yep."

"Me too." Chuck plots down beside Sarah.

Sarah slowly slides on top of him and covers them.

Just as they are getting comfortable, the door bell rings.

Chuck groans as he slides Sarah back off him and walks to the door.

"Yes?" Chuck asks the man at the door.

"I got a package for Sarah Walker." The UPS guy says.

"She's sleeping but I can take it."

"Alright, please sign here." He hands Chuck a clipboard.

Chuck signs, hands the clipboard back to the guy, and takes the package.

"Have a nice day."

"You too."

Chuck walks back into Sarah's room. "You got mail." Chuck says in a robotic voice.

"Very funny." Sarah sits up.

Chuck hands Sarah the package and lays down on the bed.

"Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh!"

Chuck quickly sits up straight. "What? What?!"

Sarah runs with the package to her home office. She turns on her laptop, fax/scanner/printer, and phone. Chuck follows her into the room.

"It's a computer program I ordered a month ago! It's finally here."

"Obliviously."

Sarah hits Chuck on the shoulder.

The answering machine turns on. "You got two new messages." The robotic voice informs her. "Message One, 'Hello Miss Walker, this is Fulcrum Security Agency, we were informed by a sister company in Washington that you were an excellent accountant. We'd like to hire you as our accountant. You can reach us at…'"

"Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh!" Sarah squeals in excitement. "I have my first big client!"

"That's great honey!" Chuck picks up Sarah and spins her around as they kiss.

Sarah slaps Chuck on the shoulder so he'll stop. "Let me down, I've got to call these people, see if the offer still stands."

Chuck sets her on the floor with one more kiss. "Alright business woman, I'll leave you to your work."

"Thank you."

Chuck walks out of the office and closes the door as Sarah sits on her chair and grabs the phone.

Dinnertime rolls around and Sarah is still in her office.

Chuck knocks softly on the door. "Sarah?"

"Come in."

Chuck opens the door and walks in. "How's everything going?"

"It's great! They gave me the job. This is the big break I've been waiting for. Hopefully FULCRUM will put my company on the map."

"That's great honey."

"But I don't know how to install this damn program and I really need it."

"Let me see." Chuck takes the CD-ROM from her and looks at the instructions.

"What? Are you gunna tell me now that you know about computers?"

"Actually, yes. I took some courses in college. Br…an old friend of mine and I wanted to make our own video game. That doesn't matter. Give me some time and I can install this for you."

"Ok, thanks, honey."

"Anything for you."

Sarah kisses Chuck and leaves the room.

Chuck gets to work, typing away on the keyboard.

10 minutes later Chuck steps out of the room to find Sarah pacing in front of the door. She stops when she sees Chuck.

She looks up at him with hope.

"It's a boy!" Chuck says excitedly.

Sarah hugs Chuck. "Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!"

Sarah starts to walk into the room but Chuck stops her.

"What?"

"Dinner time."

"Oh, right. I can cook…"

"As…delicious…as your food is, honey, remember that we're going over to my sisters for dinner?"

"Ok than."

**Woodcomb home**

"Chuck! Sarah!" Ellie says embracing both people as they walk through the door. "Travis!" She bends down and picks up Travis. "It's been forever since I've seen you all."

"It's been three weeks, sis." Chuck say.

"Chuckster, whats up?" Devon walks into the living room holding Natty.

"Devon."

Everyone greets each other and move to the dining room.

Chuck and Ellie's mom arrives and they start eating.

Later they move to the living room where Sarah shows everyone pictures of the vacation.

"Aw, you all look like a happy family." Catherine say.

Chuck puts his arm around Sarah and Travis.

"You know, I was actually thinking we could spend Christmas at the beach house this year."

"Yeah cuz nothing says Christmas like sun and sand, mom."

"Charles." Catherine says.

"You have a beach house?" Sarah asks.

"We have houses everywhere, honey." Catherine says.

"So um back to the pictures." Chuck says.

The phone rings.

"I'll get it." Ellie says.

"No one's stopping you, sis." Chuck jokes.

Ellie throws a pillow at him as she gets up.

"Very mature, Eleanor." Catherine says.

"He started it." Ellie sticks out her tongue and answers the phone. "Hello?...Yes, hold on. Chuck it's for you."

Chuck quickly gets up to get the phone. "Hello?...Yes this is Charles Bartowski."

Everyone watches Chuck's face change dramatically from smiling to shocked to a huge grin.

"Yes! That would be great! That's…wow!..." Chuck turns around and sees Sarah holding Travis. "Um, actually, could I have some time to discuss this with my family?...Okay, thank you, I will." Chuck hangs up the phone and sits next to Sarah. "I got offered a job to design and build a new subdivision!"

"That's great!"

"Yeah except that it's in Chicago. I could be there for a year or more."

Sarah's face falls.

"Sarah, say the word and I won't take the job. I'll stay here with you and Travis. I'll find something close. It's California, there's always construction jobs."

"Chuck, it took you five years to get offered a bigjob. Who knows how long it'll be until you get offered another job."

"Wow, thanks for those encouraging words."

"What I'm saying is take the job. We'll find some way to make it work."

"Are you sure?"

"Positive."

"Great! Now both of you have jobs." Ellie says.

"How did you know I had a job?" Sarah says.

"I made some calls to some old friends." Catherine says. "Think of it as an early wedding gift."

"Mom." Chuck warns.

"Oh Charles we all know it's gunna happen."

Sarah blushes.

* * *

**Next Up: One-on-one**

**Please review and continue reading my story. I promise the next chapter won't take months to update.**


	14. OneonOne

**One-on-one**

**Thanks for the reviews. Also, some of your questions and comments will be answered in this chapter and the next chapters.  
Thanks again for my wonderful beta reader, Engineerd.**

**Catherine and Stephen **

At Catherine's home…

The door bell rings and Catherine's assistant rushes to get it.

"Hello Mr. Bartowski." Holly greets.

"Hi Holly, is my ex-wife home?" Stephen asks, letting himself in.

"Yes I'll go get her."

"No need. I heard you call his name from my office. Please finish up the faxes while I deal with Mr. Bartowski, Holly."

"Yes ma'am." Holly walks away.

"What do you want Stephen? I don't have time for your ego right now."

Stephen makes himself at home, even though it financially is his home. He walks to the kitchen and pours himself a glass of lemonade.

"I got a call from Arthur today."

Catherine crosses her arms in front of her chest.

"You don't know what you're getting into. How many times have I told you not to get involved with Arthur?"

"My life and my friends do not concern you anymore, Stephen. What's the big deal if I called Arthur anyway? Last I checked you two were buddies."

"You don't understand."

"Than explain it to me."

"Everything with Arthur comes with strings attached. My friendship with Arthur…it's…it's complicated. You have no idea what I've done to get on this guys good side for the sake of my business."

"For the sake of your business, that's all you care about. Look Stephen, if you're worried about me ruining your business with Arthur you have nothing to worry about. All I asked him for was…"

"For a job for Chuck and his gold-digging girlfriend. Are you trying to ruin my reputation with my clients? How dare you ask my client for a job for two disappointing losers?"

"How dare you walk into my home judging people you don't even take a chance to know. Sarah is a wonderful young woman who just trying to get her life in order. Chuck is doing a great job in helping her. He's being a better man than you will ever be."

"I doubt he'll be as successful."

"Success is nothing without family. You do remember what a family is right, Stephen? You know, those people you celebrate your success with? Those people you come home to, who love you and who you love. Those people you have dinner with each night and tell jokes with. Who you go on vacation with and make memories. That's your family. It's what you lost."

Stephen stands up from the stool he was sitting in and stands in front of Catherine.

"Look, I'm just warning you, be careful with Arthur. You never know what you are getting with this guy."

"You should know by now that I can handle anything life throws at me."

**Sarah and Chuck**

Sarah's place…

Chuck walks into the house with greasy clothes and wiping his hands on a towel.

"I checked your car and everything should be fine until I get back. I put a spare tire in your trunk. If you're having any trouble with anything call Devon or Morgan or if you are really desperate Jeffster. They'll be waiting for your call, really they will. They'll more than happy to help you."

Sarah laughs as she wraps her arms around his neck. "I'm a bit scared now."

"Don't be. They're harmless creeps. They're not Bryce."

Sarah's face fell and she slides her arms off Chuck.

"I'm sorry, it slipped. I forgot you don't like hearing his name."

"What if he comes while you are away?"

"I won't let him hurt you again Sarah. I let it happen once and I regret ever leaving you here alone. I haven't called to accept the job. Like I said, there's always construction in California."

"No Chuck I want you to take this job. I know it's been hard for you to find a job like this in so long since your father controls everyone here. This is your chance to get back at him, show him who's the best architect."

"If that's what you really want."

"I do. I don't want to hold you back from your success."

"You can never hold me back. Without you and Travis success means nothing to me. You make me want to work harder. I want to give my family everything they deserve."

Sarah wraps her arm around Chucks neck again. "By family you mean me and Travis?"

"Yeah, I thought I established that when I took you to the Carmichael Ranch. Not just anyone goes there."

"It's just that…I haven't had this in so long."

"Well get use to it, babe, cuz from now on its family mode on full throttle."

Sarah laughs and kisses Chuck. "What did I do so wrong to get such a goofy boyfriend?"

They both silently knew all the possible answers, all of their mistakes alongside Bryce Larkin caused them to meet.

Sarah pulls away from Chuck.

"What's wrong?"

"You smell. You need a shower."

Chuck grins, liking where this is going.

"You should go take one. I'll make lunch." Sarah teases as she walks away.

Chucks grin fades but a smile grows on his face. "Oh no you don't." Chuck runs after Sarah and picks her up. "You're coming with me."

"With you? That'll be the day. You're always the one to cave-in first." Sarah loosens from Chuck's grip and runs to the bathroom.

"Hey! That was twice!" Chuck runs after Sarah and locks the bathroom door as he walks in.

3 hours later…

McDonalds bag sit on the kitchen counter, the continents scattered alongside it, half eaten.

In the living room, Sarah and Chuck sit on the couch surrounded by boxes.

Sarah sits on Chuck's lap with a touch screen, pointing it at the tv. "So this one's for the camera pointed at the parking lot?"

"Correct. Now find the one for the camera outside the basement door."

Sarah touches the screen and on the TV screen pops an image on the backyard. "I did it! You are such a great teacher." Sarah turns to face Chuck and they start making out.

The front door opens. "Ewe, gross." Carina says.

Sarah and Chuck stop kissing and stand up.

"Oh please, I've catch you and John doing worse."

John grunts.

**Chuck and John**

"Could I talk to you John, for a moment?" Chuck asks.

John grunts.

"Was that a no?" Chuck asks confused.

"No that was his 'yes' grunt. Use your big boy words, Johnny." Carina says, kissing John on the cheek.

"Fine." John says.

Chuck leads John to the basement.

"What do you want, Bartowski?"

"A favor."

"I'm not bailing you out of jail again. You should have just killed that guy the first time."

"What?! I'm not planning on…Look I just wanted to ask if you could watch Sarah for me while I'm gone. She's still a little freaked out about the Bryce incident. I don't want anything to happen to her and Travis. I set up cameras around the house along with a security system but they won't help if he actually gets in and…"

"Wow, you've really gone to the extreme, haven't you? Carina will probably be here every waking second she's not at work so you have nothing to worry about. No one will lay a hand on Sarah…unless she finds a new boyfriend while you're gone." John walks away.

"Ha ha, very funny." Chuck mocks but then gets serious. "You're kidding right? Right John? John?"

John grunt and walks upstairs smiling.

**Sarah and Carina**

"Wow, the guy went all out for you, didn't he?" Carina asks while playing with the touch screen.

"Yep." Sarah says with a proud smile.

"Except you're horrible with technology. I remember you killed the electronic dog dad bought us when we were little. How are you going to control this?" Carina points to the touch screen.

"I did not kill Burt, he let himself get run over by my bike. It was his fault. Why didn't he move?"

Carina and Sarah laugh.

"And for your information, Chuck is a great teacher, he taught me how to use it."

"I'm such he did. Did we interrupt one of your lessons earlier?"

Sarah throws a pillow at Carina.

**Chuck and Travis **

Sarah's place…

"Knock, knock, anyone home?" Devon says, opening the front door, popping his head in, holding Natty and Travis.

Sarah and Chuck quickly straighten up from their make out session in the kitchen.

"We really need to keep that door locked." Chuck whispers before walking to the door. "Yeah guys." Chuck says excitedly.

"Daddy! Daddy!" Travis says as he run toward Chuck.

Chuck quickly picks him up. "Hey kiddo. How was Disneyland?"

"Awesome!" Travis responds with a big smile.

"Thanks for watching him Devon." Chuck says. "We really needed some time to ourselves."

"No problem bro. He and Natty had a great time. See you later, bro."

"Bye bro." Travis.

Devon leaves and Chuck closes the door.

"Chuck." Sarah says from the kitchen after seeing the scene earlier.

"I totally agree, honey, limited time with The Captain."

Chuck sits on the couch with Travis.

"Listen Travis there's something important I want to talk to you about."

Travis sees Chuck get serious so he pays attention.

"I'm gunna be leaving tomorrow. I'll only be gone for two days."

"No, daddy."

"I'll be back, kiddo, I promise. Ok?"

Travis nods.

"I need you to watch your mommy for me, ok? You're the man of the house while I'm gone. Understand what I'm saying?"

"Watch mommy." Travis replies.

"Right, watch mommy."

--

"I'm really gunna miss you. It's gunna be the worse two days of my life." Chuck says as he hugs Sarah and Travis. "Remember what I told you." He whispers to Travis.

"Watch mommy."

"Good. You're the man of the house, it's your responsibility."

"Sponsbilly." Travis repeats.

Chuck gives each a kiss on the cheek and walks out the door.

Travis runs to the window and watches Chuck get into a cab and drive off.

**Next Up: Day 1 (Chuck)**


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